The Around the NFL podcast is ready to serve you a Championship Sunday. Tasty. From the Chris Wesling podcast studio, it's Around the NFL, the flagship program, the Championship Sunday. That's a little play on words, Sestog. Well, yeah. Sunday in the day of the week and a little ice cream treat.

My imagination only immediately goes Jason Zumwalt out in the Connecticut wilderness eating a massive banana split on a Sunday. Nude. Oh, that's just me. Well, nude. We assume nude.

Jason, I miss you, buddy. Come back. Dan Hans is here with Greg Rosenthal and Mark Sesler. And yes, the Super Bowl is set. It's going to sound familiar, but it's going to be a good game. The San Francisco 49ers against the Kansas City Chiefs from Allegiant Stadium in Los Vegas. Greggy, you're addicted. What do you think the opening spread is?

I'm not addicted to anything because the NFL prevents me from being so. I love that. That's all.

I'm not addicted to pigskin.

No idea.

I'm not in this gambling issue. Go ahead. We'll do the draft king since we're connected to them, tendentially.

49ers minus one and a half.

Niners. Mark?

Two and a half.

Bing, bang, boom. Sessdog's on fire with the spreads.

Two weeks in a row.

Two and a half. It is opening at two and a half.

A dug-in addicted gambler I just made.

Sesler is not coming back from Vegas. He will be working at Mandalay Sportsbook moving forward.

Are we worried about SessDog in Vegas for the Super Bowl? I am.

I mean, no more than any Super Bowl, but yes.

My behavior will be pristine. Let's just start right there.

This one's a little touch and go. Other books have it between two and three, but DraftKings has it right in the middle. That's the one that I said.

We're loyal to them.

I don't know. I can't even keep track. I don't know. I just want a Toyota Grand Highlander, and you just want a damn DiGiorno pizza.

A $3 frozen pizza that a child could buy it.

Is that asking too much to get marked a $4.99 pizza?

It is. That's what I've been told.

Here we are. Two closely contested games, two games that featured big swings and emotion, two games in which only one team could be victorious, and now the Super Bowl set. We're going to go through both of them, and we'll start with the AFC Championship game, the showdown between the mighty Kansas City Chiefs, this proud team, this dynasty. Could you call them a dynasty? Almost had you felt like you got to get back to another one, maybe win another one before it's like a set in stone dynasty, but they had to take care of business here against the number one seed Ravens at home with the MVP. If they didn't beat the homes this time, they never would. Let's see. To the game. Thirteen 9. Those are the narratives. 46.

Ravens, four-man front.

Playing press on the outside. Mahomes will throw it in the pocket. He's launching one long. Marquez Valdes-Scantling catches the at the Raven 30 on his backside.

Shades of the catch he had against Cincinnati in the end zone last year in the AFC Championship game.

Marquez Valdes-Scantling saving the best for last. Whoa. Mitch Holtes with a call. Mvs, who couldn't catch the sniffles in April of 2020, now is unstable on deep balls. He makes What's the catch? The clincher from 32 yards from Mahomes on third and nine with about two minutes to play. The incompletion there would have given the Ravens the ball with time to either tie or win, but instead, the Chiefs and the Great Mahomes, who are touch downs on each of their first two possessions. Then again, turned to that defense, which was as good as advertised to beat the Ravens 17 to 10. It is the Kansas City Chiefs back to the Super Bowl for the fourth time in five years as they continue to chisel away in stone a dynasty case. Greg, of course, the Chiefs beat the Eagles last year in the Super Bowl, and now they look to be the first team to repeat as Super Bowl champions since your New England Patriots way back in 2004, 20 years ago. And man, at this point, how could you doubt the Chiefs? I dare you to do it. I did it Many others did. And once again, they made everybody gobble on banana splits, humble pie, Jason's nude.

Everybody was all fired.

The oddsmakers are doing it again, apparently, as well. And what I think that number and all the numbers can't really quantify is how Patrick Mahomes, with a big-time assist from his guy Travis Kelsi. And it is crazy how this team who's made all these AFC Championship Games in a row and all these Super Bowl into just short time, is really led by their quarterback and tight-end, just like the Patriots, that they're led by the best game manager I've ever seen. He's the best player I've ever seen, and there's a lot of game manager discourse going around, I feel like, lately. And to me, this game was a sign of how Patrick Holmes has always been a game manager, but it's even better at it now. Because you think of those first couple of drives, he hits a beautiful throw to Kelsey on third down to stay on the field, or rather, the fourth down to on the field. Incredible play where Kelsey's not open, and he's the backside receiver on that play. He's the third option, and you get to it in a big spot. You get Kelsey again, not really that open for the countdown, but just a beautiful play.

You get a couple of touch downs early, and then nothing happens essentially for eight street drives. You can say, Oh, he didn't even have a very good game. They scored 17 points, and that's all true. But he knew what he was doing. He didn't make any mistakes. Then when you absolutely needed to get a first down at the end, he goes for a big play, and he hits it to MVS, who is our modern day, Sammie Watkins. He only shows up in the biggest games ever, and he delivers.

Even when MVS was obviously overtly struggling a couple of times, like an island games on Sunday night football. He still was getting behind defense. He still had his speed.

That's never been his problem.

Right. He was getting behind defenders, and it was just like, Can you just convert? Can you catch the ball? In the last couple of weeks, the questions that we've had about Kansas City's weapons and offense, that story's changed. It's not that they're suddenly some powerhouse. They're not. They're still struggling. I watched this game today, and the way it ended, it was just like a team that finds a way each of these teams have a character and a a definition of who they are. The Chiefs can win ugly. They can win in ways that they didn't win in previous years, and they can do it with the same players. There's this whole story of this because it's very painful. I think to lose a Super Bowl is stark. But to lose these AFC and NFC Championship games, you come this far if you're the Ravens, and the things that got you here did not show up today the way they should have. But I would say this, you cannot blame their defense. They shut down Kansas City for the almost entirety of the second half and gave their offense a chance to succeed.

That's what I mean. Isn't it always... It's always something. That's why this performance in this game offensively, and we'll get to the defense for the Chiefs, just reminded me so much of braided because you look at the box score at the end. It's like, Oh, they averaged 4.4 yards per play, and they were stopped for seven or eight straight drives. But he knows how to make the plays that you need to. He knows what that game requires. He does.

But I also just think that this Chief's defense, which is overshadowed because of Mahomes always, is like the stamp of this team is what their defense was able to do today. You took the MVP and a Raven's offense that had dominated teams and dominated the 49ers and blew the doors off the Houston Texans, and they were nonexistent when it mattered the most.

Listen, the Chiefs did not score in the second half. There are echoes of the Patriots' dynasty now that are just rippling and bouncing off this Chief's team in this era of Chiefs football. It is the fact that it isn't just Mahomes, just like it wasn't just braided. The fact that they... I went into this game a little bit dubious. I'm I've seen multiple big-time defenses not step up down the stretch of the season. The Chiefs once again showed, and Steve Spagnola, who you haven't heard anything about getting another chance at a head coaching job. I mean, this guy is the secret weapon. He is the Belichick to what Bill Parcells had during his era and time in the late '80s and early '90s. The game plan he cooked up to confuse and befuddle Lamar Jackson, who looked like he didn't what he was seeing in this game. There were so many moments when the Ravens pass protection is holding up, and I know they got to him a couple of times as well. He's just holding the ball, Lamar, because he's, to quote the Darnold line, he was seeing ghosts. There are multiple times when I'm thinking, Lamar, you are the most fantastic athlete to play the quarterback position, perhaps ever.

You're just sitting in this pocket waiting for something to happen, waiting to see something that's not there. You have to give it to the Chiefs that every level of their defense played a big time game. But it is a team effort, Greg, and it's Mahomes and Kelsey and that offensive line stepping up. Even on a day where they're running game, they couldn't do anything. But the fact that they were able to make enough plays on defense early and then lean on their defense. Just a total team effort and a reminder and a lesson to me, and I think it should be to a lot of people, is these teams that don't come around too often, when the playoffs come, you see them make the plays and stay under control and close out games. And teams like the Ravens, no matter how great they have been during the year, things go sideways and they start short-circuiting. And you saw that a lot with Baltimore in this game. They did not play a good game, Greg. They didn't play a disciplined game, and they're going home as a result.

I think their The offense played well overall. The offense didn't. We'll get to that. I want to just give the credit to the Chiefs first. You mentioned Pacheco couldn't get anything done. And yet, again, when they get the ball back, 2:34 to go, Tucker had just hit the field goal at 17 to 10. They They had their best run in about three quarters in that seven yards on first down. It's just like even without Joe Tooney, they had some runs on those first touch down drives, and that seven-yard run set up Baltimore intentionally taking a penalty, and it set up everything else. But you're right, the story should be the defense. And Lamar Jackson struggled in this game. The run game, other than Lamar, he did lead them in rushing for 54 yards was nonexistent. Gus Edwards and Justice Hill had a combined six attempts to Lamar Jackson's 37 passing attempts, which I think Todd Monken is going to regret how that played out. But the guys on the other side of the field, I think of that Chris Jones deflection in the first half on third down when they were throwing a screen. People were like, Oh, I saw people like, If that wasn't Lamar Jackson, people would be killing him for that play.

It's like, No, that was an incredible recognition and play by Chris Jones that he made multiple times. That was going to be a first down. Lamar even tried to get away from him by throwing it sideways, and Chris Jones still makes it. Lejarrius Steed knocks out the ball. It's a play that Zee flowers is going to live with for the rest of his life, and he should not be reaching it out at the goal line. But it's still LeJarrius Steed, one of the best defensive backs in the league, making a hustle play and knocking it out at the goal line. They were just so active defensively. Emana Huh had that force fumble on Lamar when he did hold it on too long. They get the interception. They didn't drop their interceptions like we saw so many other have today. They intercepted Lamar in the end zone. It's a team effort. We have a little shot of the T-shirt that all the players wore of Steve Spagnola. If you're watching this on YouTube, and I see those YouTube numbers rising. We appreciate you. Like and subscribe. It was great. I see them to happen. The In spags, we trust with the demon eyes.

Every defensive player was wearing. Spags said he was almost embarrassed, and he was saying, I sure hope we won because they were wearing it before the game, too. And they came through with an effort that shows how much they trust in Spags.

Shout out to Nate Taylor on the tweet.

I think Spagnola, one of the things that he's done in multiple games where it's like, I think because he was an unsuccessful head coach, He had to recreate his reputation on some level, but the blitzes that he cooked up. I thought the Raven's offensive line was operating from behind the entire game today. That's how you get… If you're going to beat this Chief's team, You need to be at home, pure pristine, and you get a terrible Lamar Jackson interception in the end zone. There was another play on a third down pass where he's very lucky it wasn't picked off. You had the fumble. It's like, Lamar Jackson needs to go as the so-called MVP, go and play his best game. It just seems to be asking too much, but it's this Chief's defense that creates complete and total confusion. I think the Raven's line was cooked from the start. The way that they were rushing Lamar and getting to him with speed rushers from wire to wire. It just seemed like Baltimore had no answers, and they got away from who they've been all year. They went away from their ground game.

This is not meant to... I'm just going to want to cook up Lamar here. But I thought we were past this, and I thought what we saw in the second half of the divisional playoffs, that put some things to bed around him and what the story is or the narrative around Lamar Jackson is. I didn't expect this. That's why I picked the Ravens. That's why I locked up the Ravens. I thought this really was his moment. You have to say it's a disappointing performance, obviously, by Lamar, but I don't want to take away from what Kansas City's defense did in this game and what Spags and company have done all year. It's a combination of both.

Well, it's also like everything went against them, too. If the flowers' TD, especially, don't you think changed the game? Absolutely. It's 17, 14 there with a ton of time left in That was off of 2-3 straight good throws by Lamar.

Here's the thing. You're right. You have a terrible turnover by Zee flowers. That's the old Bill Belichick would bench you if you ever try to reach near the goal line. It was a dreaded mistake, and it might have cost them their season. They got the ball down deep again. Was at the next possession, and that's when Lamar throws the ball up for grabs. A couple of different plays go differently, and the Ravens are either were going overtime or they went outright. But that almost is too kind to their performance as a whole. I thought this was a team that was undisciplined, that let the moment overwhelm them. I thought they had multiple bad penalties, whether it was personal fouls. Was there too many men on a fieldway?

They had five 15-yard penalties.

That's what I mean, where it's like, You're right, Lamar did not have a good game. He had his moments. But like a lot of this year for this team, especially if it was a full team. Everyone had a huge part in that. They had four personal foul penalties, and those first ones, two of them led to the three points that the Chiefs had before halftime, which were massive. So they ended up minus three. Which were good calls, by the way. Right. There was some missed, maybe. I thought you could have called the pass interference on Lamar's interception, but it doesn't take away that it was the worst possible throw and it wasn't an interception.

My point was, I didn't think we were He's getting that throw from Lamar this January. Now that sticks with him, again, whether people want to talk about it or not.

It does. It's not just a target Lamar thing, but when you think of the Baltimore Ravens under Harbaugh and who they've been, the Roquan Smith unnecessary roughness penalty, where it was like a shame. You're going in there intentionally to blow things up, but you do it in a way where you're not even a good theespian, you're not a good actor, and it gets called for what it is. Zee flowers, young I'm not sure he's going to learn from this, but the taunting call.

That was an insane... It was about a five-play sequence. These are the problems. Where he makes a big play, gets a taunting, then he gets another big play to get those yardage back from the taunting penalty, then gets the ball knocked away on a penalty, then goes back to the sideline and slams his helmet down and cuts his finger open. That's an insane five minutes of a human's life that was documented in front of 60 million people.

That's a rough six or seven human experience.

In front of 60 million people. Speaking of Lamar, let's hear from, and he will be a week from Thursday named the NFL MVP, and you can't take away anything from him in terms of the performance going into this game. But all of it seems a little bittersweet now for Ravens nation. No hay in the barn. I mean, no turnovers. They played the game basically perfect.

They put points on the board. I felt like if we weren't to turn the ball over, we definitely would have had a shot. We definitely would have came out with a win.

But they did a great job not turning the ball over and putting points on the board. Let's hear from the other quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, who... And Lamar made a good point there. I mean, the Chiefs weren't perfect in this game, but again, they've been so clean, and they're playing it the way the Patriots used to play. It even wasn't a pristine, perfect effort. They play the game the right way, and then the other team wiltz in the big moment, and then you take advantage of it. All of a sudden, you're walking away. It's like, Did we just lose that game? Yeah, you always seem to get beat by that team that always keeps their heads together this time of year.

You don't take it for granted either. You never know how many you're going to get to or if you're going to get to any. It truly is special just to do it with these guys after what we've been through all season long, guys coming together. It really is special, but I told them, I mean, the job is not done. Our job now is to prepare ourselves to play a good football team in the Super Bowl and try to get that ring. I think we'll remember that you'll see at the end of the game, the only They had 17 points, and you look at the box score and all that, and it doesn't seem like a crazy, impressive performance. I believe there was an eight-drive sequence here where they had three points. I mean, really, the last eight and not many first downs either. I think they had eight first downs in those eight drives, so they weren't really moving the ball. But that obscures how impressive those first two drives were. The play where, to me, that defined this game was the one where Mahomes Mahomes is scrambling around, breaks a bunch of tackles, and throws an insane pass that Kelsey catches.Beautiful.I'm trying to think of a great center fielder here.

Maybe Muki in his prime, diving for the ball Kelsey gets that, and that leads directly to a countdown. Those were magical plays by Mahomes on those first couple of dribbles. They were perfect. He started 11 for 11 in this game, and those two touch downs, yeah, you needed your defense to be great, But they set the tone for the game.

I'm going to give you a center fielder.

Jim Edmonds. Okay, that would have been better. I like that.

I think Kelsey's degree of difficulty with some of the catches, especially right out of the gate, I think he had four catches in the first quarter alone and broke the Jerry Rice postseason in the record, but it was like we had come to this common understanding that this version of Kelsey that we were getting largely was not...

We got Ropa doped, everybody. 11 for 116.

You know how many times it was? You know how many throws went to Kelsey that he didn't catch? The Bills did.

Zero. The Bills got Ropa-doped. The Ravens got Ropa-doped. Ropa-doped. America got Rope-a-doped. Nobody saw this chief's rise coming, except for the chiefs. I think they always believed that they could do this.

I know this maybe is arcane or stupid or means nothing, but when the replays, when James Palmer sent out end zone evidence of you have Justin Tucker sitting there with his little kicking tea in his helmet trying to get in the way of Patrick Mahomes warming up, and Kelsey just comes over and takes Justin Tucker, a future Hall of Game kicker. Greatest kicker has ever lived. He just takes his helmet and whips it through the end zone. It's like, get out of our space. We're in Baltimore, and it's like something about the Chiefs. That's who they are. It's like no one's... It was an alpha move. It was. Justin Tucker, to his credit, didn't explode or throw a hissy fit or anything. But it was like, he was left as the lesser individual in that conversation in your home stadium.

I know this is your stadium. I know you're the number one seed, but this is Championship Sunday, and this is our time. This is the Chiefs. This is us. This is what we do. You're just a guest, and you'll find out in about four hours how this goes. They absolutely followed up with a great performance. Let's listen to Kelsey on the Rizer after the game. Shout out to Jerry Rice, baby. The Chiefs are still the Chiefs, and believe it, you got to fight for your rise to party. Believe it, baby, we're going to Las Vegas Nevada. They're going to get us another one. I love that. The white boy flow from Kelsey, especially when he's excited. Yeah, you got Taylor Swift with stars in her eyes.

That doesn't happen often to Taylor Swift.

Compete on that. I wanted to mention this before we get sidetracked again. The fact that Taylor Swift is at the game again, she comes down on the field after the game. There's all sorts of shots of them together and point at each other and kissing. You can't make it up. You can't make up the fact that... And maybe, and there's been a lot of talk. I don't know, we haven't really addressed it on the show, not because we're avoiding it, but just it's stupid, but a lot of talk about the fixes in and all this was planned and the colors of the Super Bowl logo were supposed to be telling us that the NFL had already decided who was going to be playing in the game.

Greg was very into that theory. He's been texting us late at night about that.

But so the Travis Kelsey thing that he ends up dating the most famous woman in the world, and now she's been continuing Continually in the news and on the cameras, and now she's on the field at the ABC Championship Game, and now she's going to be at the Super Bowl. This is the biggest... Taylor Swift is on the biggest pop culture heater since Michael Jackson, he put out Thriller in November '82, and we're going to take it to We Are the World, which he co-wrote with Lionel Richie and performed in '85, I put Taylor's Run. The fact that she's in the middle of even this pop culture moment from all her music and all her success, it is outrageous how in the middle of everything this woman is.

That's my point. I mean, the kiss they had was perfectly framed. They actually ran it as they were rolling the credits. It reminded me so much of maybe the most famous photograph in American history. In Times Square. In the Times Square picture after defeating, after World War II and everything. Except now it'sTravis, Kelsey. That's our generation. That's our picture, Travis, Kelsi, and Taylor Swift. People need to calm down if they get their-Not D-Day.

Everybody's going to go, Oh, not D-Day. It was after victory in Japan.

I do think, Dan, you've forgotten when Steve Wynwood's back in the high life again came out, that was also a heater that really was….

I know you love your Wynwood, and I love Wynwood.

Jackson came in a close second to that.

But I mean, this is tough. It's a big take by you.

I always pushed so hard back against the Kelsey might be in the conversation of the greatest tight ends of all time because I think it was ignoring, first of all, how we talked about a lot of those tight ends, not just Grank at the time, and some of their all pros and all that. When you stack them up, actually, they were just as dominant in their day as Kelsey was now. Stuff like this, This playoff run in particular, to put it over the top, does remind me of Grank, especially in the one where they beat the Chiefs and they got their last Super Bowl, and Grank spiking it and having that run with the Bucks. This is special because you look at the offense, it's not really that much different, Dan, than the offense we were complaining about. I know we're saying it's so much different. It's not that much different. It's just Kelsey and Rice, and now they're getting a little sprinkling of Scantling, which does make a big difference. A little sprinkling of Scantling, and it took away the terrible players that were ruining them, Sky Moore and Tony, who's never going to play for the Chiefs again.

They eliminated the mistakes. That's all. The offense actually isn't doing much more. James Palmer told us that. They got rid of all the dumb plays. But a huge part of that formula is 11 targets to Kelsey for 11 catches in 116 yards. But that's it. And what he did, that's just amazing. It is a big difference. That is.

That's what I mean. We weren't getting that.

From last year, when they were still an unstoppable offense, more or less, and won the Super Bowl, what made that work, despite losing Tyreek Hill, was that they didn't have a lot of big playability. That wasn't part of their offense last year either. They got stuff in moments. But MVS adding that to the recipe down the stretch here. But Kelsey was the key to everything with this team.

And Racerai shows up every week. I know he was 8 for 46.

He's the only guy that was consistent all year. But that's what we kept on saying, what's wrong with this offense? Travis Kelsing having one of those all-time tight-end seasons last year, lifted all the boats. And now that he's back to doing that again, all of a sudden, and I know They didn't have a huge offensive game, but you can't understate how incredibly important he is to what they do.

Mahomes opened 11 for 11. Kelsie's targeted 11 times, has 11 catches. I thought this was the defense that could find a way to nullify someone like Travis Kelsey.

To be fair, once they got out of their 15-play script, they did. I actually think this was a good performance by Mike McDonald, and we end up talking about the winners only. But Kyle Hamilton played incredible, too. He was awesome. Roquan Smith was incredible today. I thought Patrick Queen was really good today. They got beat, and I just think great offense beats great defense. When they look at those plays that beat them on those first two drives, Most of them were just great plays that beat guys in good position, including that Kelsey touch down. What could have Kyle Hamilton done anymore on that play? He was all over him. Mahomes fits it into a tiny window. He had good coverage. It happens better. They were just better, and they adjusted. I do think on the other side, though, when you look at that box score, and it's flowers for five for 115. And then after that, it's nothing. Algalar had a nice big play on a nice throw from Lamar, and Beckham is playing their fourth receiver role. Bateman, who they trusted to play more. He doesn't do anything. And the drop-off that there was no one other than Lamar and Zee, who had his own issues, that really did anything.

I think they're going to want to to fill out this roster as good as this team was, Beckham's not going to be back with this team, I don't think, unless he just can't get a contract elsewhere, and he's willing to take a lot less money. They actually do need more weapons still. But here we are.

We're back here again.

I was like, exactly. We're It's like you're about to lose.

And you're not wrong.

You're about to lose Mike McDonald as likely to head coaching duties, and you have to remove some of these weapons, and all the same questions crop up. This is the team that should be pounding people in Baltimore in their home stadium in late January. Take away Lamar on the ground, they ran for 27 yards.

You got to kill Mankin because the lack of carries in this game. I know the game script in the time of possession was a big deal, but that's how they were in their bread and butter.

They were never far off.

They were the team with critical mistakes.

Right, exactly. What I mean is they never ran the ball. Part of it was they could never get any drives going. After that touch down drive, they have the Lamar fumble drive that last five plays. They have a one first down five play drive, a three and out, a three and out to start the second half. They had a little something going, and then they have take negative plays of punt before that. So it was these short drives, but you're absolutely right. I thought the Chief's defensive line really stood up. I thought on the other side of the ball, it was a pretty even battle, and the Ravens won their share. But for the Chief's defensive line, Karloftis and the middle of that line, Dana Omenahou, certainly Chris Jones, they beat, I think, the Ravens' offensive for the most part, especially against the run.

I thought decisively, surprisingly. They have a drive that ends at the nine, fumble, interception, the one in the end zone, and then a too-late field goal. It's like they disappeared. I felt like the Ravens kept having these drives where it's like, Here's your chance to get back into this, but then it would melt in some way, and it's like time was ticking fast on them.

They outgained the Chiefs 201 to 78 until that last- Baltimore in the second half.

It's balls off in the second half.

It did everything you can ask.

Listen, there are very few quarterbacks that are as fortunate as, say, who we're going to talk about later, Brock Purdy, to have all stars or Kurt Warner, not to single out Purdy, back in the day, to have all stars all around you. If Lamar is as good as we say he is, you shouldn't have to build the perfect supporting cast around him for this ultimately to end with a Lombardi trophy being hoisted. The true great ones make the most of it.

I think there's still- Unless they're in Patrick Mahomes or Tom Brady's conference, then no one ever makes it.

Well, I'm just saying- That no one else is great. I know. I don't disagree with what you're saying that this is a roster, an offense that needs tweaks, and it would have maybe been a different game. Mark Andrews was 100% in this game, Obviously, but it just was a bad look all the way around for the Ravens. I was bitterly disappointed.

A great pick, and he was a little immature, made some mistakes in this game. He's also a rookie, and it was their clear number one receiver, so that was a nice find. They're just going to be looking for more.

One last First thing about the Kelsey-Gronk comparison, and it's impossible not to do that with two greats that basically overlapped and play the same position. Just like Gronk back in the day, so many of the Kelsey catchers are absolute daggers, either third down conversions, fourth down conversions, red zone scoring plays. In this game, he had 11. It felt like 21. Even last week, he only had five, but it felt like 10 because the plays he makes are so consequential because, and it makes sense in the money moments, in the crucible moments, that's where number 10 looks. They're going to the Hall of Fame together one day.

That's why we believe in tight-end wins. That's a stat that matters to me.

I'll tell you this. I don't care what anybody picks. I'm done. I'm out of the picking against Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelsey and Spags and Andy Reid in January and February because look, they've been laying in waste of the doubters and they've loved doing it. They're again, a dog, Greg. Any other thoughts on this game before we move on?

That is almost perfect for them because it's inconsequential, two and a half points, whatever it is. But they could ride that.

I think they just-No, they will. That will fuel them. We will hear about that for two weeks.

We will. All right, we're going to take a break, and then we're going to go to the NFC side of things, which was... Oh, man, what a wild one. All right, let's take a All right, welcome back. So the AFC Championship. I want to say it went to script because the favorite went down in flames. But the game played out in ways that made sense, and with the Mighty Mahomes and company, triumphant. This NFC title game we're about to get into, and by the way, it's time for the Sunday Drive presented by the first ever Toyota Grand Highlander, and I'm only asking for one Highlander. Mark, I think we're asking for... Let's give Mark five pizzas.

Yeah, at least. That compared to a human vehicle that costs thousands of dollars, it feels like-The hell is a human vehicle. I mean, just the fact that they're going to send you a $25,000 truck or something or whatever it is, and I'm getting five frozen pizzas.

Must fit in with the human automobile.

It just feels like someone's getting a better deal potentially there.

I'm just saying, but you're right, monetarily, it's not going to even out. But just give Mark a French bread pizza. Yeah. Mark is still in.

Well, just so I can know the product better.

Give him the classic pie. Just mix it up.

It's a fair request on your part for me. Are you ready for a big W at your next watch party?

Anyway. We don't know. I don't know either. What I was saying was this game we're about to talk about now had so many... It was really two games, two different games. But the thing is, when there's two different games, you want to be typically the team that has their game last. For fans of the team from Michigan-Well, if it might be in their game, you mean scoring lots of points?

Yeah.

Yeah, and just like... Because let's be honest, Greggy, this might be an all-time or the all-time momentum game. This is the momentum bowl. This is the one that causes Claybon and Greg to drop to their knees and profusely apologize. I think that sets the table accurately. I I don't even think you, at this point, Greg, could debate it. This game we're about to talk about has proven Mark and I and millions of others correctly while sending you scrambling for shelter.

Not true. Never. It is completely true. Not true.

All right, to the big bell bottom.

Three yards away. Nine feet is required. Birdy under center. Use check. Now, Elijah Mitchell is in.

They give it to Mitchell off the right side, pushing for goal line.

Is he in? Touchdown.

San Francisco.

Eli is home.

There it is, the call from Greg Papa with Tim Ryan, KNBR. The San Francisco 49ers down 24/7 at the break. Absolutely barnstorm. The lines in the second half, going up 34-24 after that Mitchell touch then that was set up by a big CMC play. And then a late line score made it close and hurt some people involved with deserts. However, all that mattered in the end was San Francisco, with that big run in the second half, take out the Lions 34 to 31. The Niners scored 17 points in an eight-minute span of the third quarter to tie this NFC title game, pull away in the fourth, and they get a rematch with the Chiefs, who defeated them in crushing fashion four years ago. Mark, the Lions Did everything right. He did everything right in the first half. But San Francisco's offense has the explosiveness that if you open the door for him, they will storm right in. And to the credit of Purdy and Ayuk and Debo and CMC and Kittle, they ran right in and set the place on fire.

Well, they remind me of what we talked about with the Chiefs to the degree that you're talking about a team that's been through these crucible moments against a team that is learning what that means to even be as an NFL team. They came out the lion so hot and so fiery, and it was like they seemed inevitable to me almost. But then there was this, these games happen, how they unfold. There was a sequence of of items. I'll just say quickly when we get into it, but it was like you have a key moment where it's 24 to 10. It's fourth and 2 for the lions. They have a chance to really, I think, stick a knife into the Niners. A fourth and 2 pass to Josh Reynolds that goes incomplete. You could have ran the ball there. On the next sequence for the Niners, you have that Brandon Ayuk, incredible throw downfield, a 51-yard completion that ricochets off the helmet of Kindlevildor, it sounds like a Space Age underboss.

A name that will live in infamy in Detroit.

That's not the line. That isn't like something you just blame on the lines, it's just this fateful moment that happens. That's momentum.

The momentum bounced off the helmet. It bounced off his helmet. Depending on who caught it, they had the momentum.

Whatever happened there- You sound terrible, Greg.

You're That's what you're saying.

That doesn't what you're saying makes no sense.

No, it's luck.

That was luck. It is. It is. It is. It was just two very different things. It's just sports. It's like Bill Buckner. It's whatever you want to say. It's suddenly-Well, you know what it is?

It's a failure to execute, though. Bill Dore doesn't make the catch and opens the door for the Niners to make a play.

It's true, but it also would have been an incredible play if he had. But then, Ayouk scores, plays later. It's 24-17, and you can start to feel stuff shifting. Then you get Jamir Gibbs, who is such a wonderful player for up until this moment, the key fumble, and then you have a big run by Brock Purdy. They score. It's 24-24, and everything starts to shift.

A 17-point lead, a race like that. 8 minutes. It was nothing. 8 minutes. We can get to all the Campbell decisions and the way-I have those set up, by the way. I'll go through those. This thing falls apart. But now that we've even had the game ended probably what an hour ago or something like that, now that we've even had a little time to think about it, We don't get to do these four days later.

We do it 40 minutes later.

I just mean that's what you're going to remember from this game, or I'm going to remember first, is the ball bouncing off the helmet, the fact that they had a 17-point lead, the fact that they couldn't execute on the fourth down, the fact that they kept dropping passes, they kept dropping the ball. Jamir Gibbs, Josh Reynolds had two drive, killing drops. But what is lost a little bit in that is that this 49ers offense, which was statistically the best offense in the league all season long, they're down 17 points at halftime. They get some good fortune, certainly in the second half, but they got the ball five times after halftime. They scored every freaking time. They scored three touch downs and had two field goals. One of those field goal drives was the best field goal drive of Kyle Shanaher and Brock Purdy's They squeezed seven minutes off the clock to take a lead that completed the comeback and gave them their first lead. There are five drives on offense with, yes, that one very lucky play, but offensively, and they're an offensive team, going up a very shaky lines defense in general all year.

They were perfect. They had to be perfect after halftime. Offensively, they ran it when they needed to. They got big plays when they needed to. Purdy ran it when he needed to. Yes, he got very fortunate in this game throughout at different points. But ultimately, in nut cutting time, second half, the best offensive league looked like the best offensive league.

Yes, absolutely. People are going to maybe just dwell on the Niner side of things and the collapse, but you have to give it to the Niners. Kyle Shanahan, who before last week, the whole story is on this guy as great as he is. If his team gets down late, they're done. Back to back, big comebacks. They They survived the Packers game, and then they... The way I was so impressed by what the Ravens did against the Texans in the divisional round, where they took some punches in the first half and then just took control of the game, the Niners did that, but on a hugely bigger stage. So you got to give them credit. Now, so much of the talk around the game is going to go back to, how do the Lions blow a 24-7 lead? And the Ayou catch is a huge part of it. I think it will live in infamy in Detroit because I don't think it would have been what your word was, outstanding or whatever it was, catch. I thought it was a playable ball by DB that gets turned not only into, it's not even just an incomplete pass, gets turned into a huge game that sets up the countdown, thatends that sends that building and credit to Niners fans, because that's not typically a stadium where you say, Oh, that place rocks when it gets loud.

That place was rocking. So that was a massive play. The fumble happening immediately after. Huge play. And then the thing snowball. Huge.

That felt like the biggest one to be the fun.

Yeah, it think snowballed after that. But with Campbell, there were four big decisions in this game that people are going to talk about. The first one I'm not going to go crazy about because I agreed with it first of all. Greg, I don't think you did, but seven seconds to go in the second quarter. They're up 21 to seven. It's fourth in goal to San Francisco three. Campbell thinks it over, decides it's a little too far. He kicks the field goal. I think Greg Olson was on him a little bit and said, Listen, this is your chance to give a knockout punch. Hindsight, 2020. Maybe you do take that chance. But instead of going for 28-7, they take the field goal, I guess. I think part of that, Greg, was the Niners or Campbell, knowing the Niners got the ball to start the third quarter, too, being like, Let me take these points, get ahead three scores.

You wanted to go in feeling like it was as dominant as possible. It's hard to have it both ways and say, Okay, take the field goal here, but don't take it there. The numbers and I think Campbell's instincts coming into play here, a lot of it has to do with... A big part of the reason you go for the fourth and goals is because you're pinning the other team back, and you lose that advantage at the end of the second quarter. You get no advantage from that. I'm with you, and that's what I like about Campbell. He hasn't been a play it by the book guy. He has a feel, I think, for the game, and he takes the three there. I think part of it, he said it, they wanted to get to 30. They did in the end, but they knew they needed to score a lot.

All right, Mark, I'll set you up now on the next big play with Campbell. It's fourth and two at the San Francisco 28-yard line. There's seven minutes left in the third quarter. It is 24-10. Instead of bringing out the kicker, it was not a big-time kicker, and you have to keep these things in mind. Michael Badgley. Michael Badgley.

He just joined the team.

But instead of kicking the field goal to try to go up 27-10, this was after San Francisco marched down the field to kick the field goal to start the second half. He opts to go for it. He passes underneath to Josh Reynolds. He drops the ball turnover. You start to hear people getting on Campbell a little bit, which I thought was unfair, Mark, because this is what Dan Campbell and the lines were about all year.

I'm with I think that you could say, Do you run the ball there? Maybe because earlier on the game, they were running with a lot of force and power.

They picked up a third in 13 running it early.

Right. There would be evidence that that might have been another option. At that point in the game, golf was also starting to feel pressure from Bosa. Nick Bosa was starting. He had two sacks in this game, and Goff was under a lot of heat on that actual in particular, incompletion of Josh Reynolds. Then it leads to the Ayoug play. But I would say this. If we just talked about a Ravens team that looked different today than the way that they were hammering teams in the past. I had at no point thought that Dan Campbell went away from his character, who he is, how he runs this team. This is part of what the lines do.

The Goff pass was true. Like, the Reynolds dropped the ball.

They were connecting on a lot of stuff tonight.

It's like, I think it's just you go for it. I have no problem with that at all. I don't get the whole issue with this.

This one gets a little dicier now. It's fourth and three at the Niners 30. Now you've lost the lead. The Niners just went on that long drive to kick the field goal. You have a chance to tie the game. You bring out Badgley to attempt a 47-yarder, which is a very high percentage make in the league right now, now in the NFC title game in the fourth quarter, midway through, it's a little harder kick, but no doubt he decides to, again, keep the offense on the field. This time, Greg, Goff does not take care of his own business because he misses someone crossing underneath and throws incomplete. So a chance to tie the game midway through the fourth, you decide to go for it, and he's getting killed on social media for this. My point about the previous play still stands. This is what the lines were. You can't change now.

Yeah, that would have been a 47-yarder. Again, that's hardly locked in for Michael Badgley in a big spot. But your boy-This is it.

This one is coin flip, but that's who they were.

I wish I could rewatch that play right now because if I'm remembering right, I think Bosa had a quick pressure on that play, too. Bosa really made his money in the second half of this game. He was really good. That impacted the play. Goff, I think, was a little off down the stretch. Going for the field goal there, I just think the thing to remember is the Lion's defense did not have a stop in the second half. They looked gas. People use the fact that, Hey, you'd be within seven if you had just hit that field goal. Okay, true, but you just gave up a touch on them. The point was they needed to keep scoring to possibly keep up. So, yeah, maybe you kick a field goal. Your defense still to get stops. It wasn't showing that it could do it.

All right, let's hear, by the way, I want to hear from Campbell on his decision to stay aggressive.

I don't regret those decisions, and that's hard. It's hard because we didn't come through. It wasn't able to work out, but I just don't.

I understand the scrutiny I'll get.

That's part of the gig, man. But we just didn't work out.

Now the final move that he makes, and this is the only one I thought was indefensible. They are down 34, 24 at this point. It's third in gold. The San Francisco one. I understand the odds were stacked against them, but with 65 seconds to play, they run the ball to Montgomery. It gets stuffed, and Not only does that backfire, you have to burn a timeout. At that point, you're playing, you have to go for it on fourth down, obviously, which they convert, but now it's onside kick or bust because you no longer have three timeouts marked. That was a very shaky decision. Probably not in either way, but that was the only one where I was like, Well, Campbell, F that one up.

I'm with you. I think you said it perfectly. You're going through the script with the bullets flying in real-time, and you've got to do the best you can with it. I didn't love that play call necessarily, but this is who the lions are. I think that one of the reasons that more coaches are being hired who see decision making the same way that Dan Campbell does is because this is... I think Greg Olson, we talked about Greg Olson is one of the better describers of why these things are happening, why coaches... Because he's sitting there and talking. He's the best in my mind. He's describing what today's NFL is. I understand also if you're coming from a different point of view from a different time where some of this stuff drives you mad or you don't quite have the full read on why it's happening. If you're a Alliance fan, you got a lot of frustration, but this is who they are. This is your head coach. You got this far because he's been doing this all year. He's been doing it last year. It's like, aggression is the way to go in today's league.

Well, and especially with this team, which is an offense-heavy team that didn't play great on offense. I think Goff, his ball placement was a little off in the second half. But even that run, Dan, I hear you. It didn't work, but I I think that's what we get back to with all these. It's just like, I think the process all made sense. It's just like the players decide, and they didn't win. They didn't execute. They were the inferior team, ultimately, I think, when you stack it all up. But You look back at that sequence, and they were taking a little while to get down there. Ferkser barely steps out of bounds at the one. Looked like Ferkser was going to score.

He was moving like Frankenstein after he caught them off.

Not the first guy you'd want to pinpoint in that situation.

He caught it. He was like, Why is Sam Laporte? Did he hurt his knee again? I was like, Oh, no, it's the guy that doesn't have a catch this year.

Again, I'd have to rewatch it. I doubt he's the first read on that play, but he had a lot of-I land bad. He probably should have scored there. Then they do throw on second down. Then you're at a point You're at a point you have to score. They know that you know that they know that you can't like that you don't want to blow the time out there. You're trying to catch them a little by surprise. How are you overthinking it, though?

That's all I'm saying.

Perhaps. But you're also thinking, what are we better at? What can we do best? We can run the ball. It's a higher percentage play. And yes, they did get the countdown. That countdown was one of the best plays a lines receiver made all day. It was a great catch by Jamison Williams on a great throw by It was a very difficult time. It's just hard for those to work. I just come back to the players have to make the plays, and the lines just didn't make it. They had four drives that went poor before that breakdown drive, right? Here's how three of them ended. Two with Reynolds drops. We didn't mention the first Reynolds, the second Reynolds drop, which to me was the bigger one. It was on a third down. He's wide open on a crossing route. It's a perfect throw, and he literally kicks it. He drops it, and and then he kicks it. There's four drives in a row that go poorly. Two are on Reynolds's drops, and one is gives his fumble. It's just like, they dropped the ball, literally.

Ammon Ross, St. Brown, who I thought in the first half was just going to take over this entire game. In the second half, to mirror what you're talking about about just drives crumbling away, he wasn't targeted until eight minutes left to go in the game. The guys in the first half that were dominating San Francisco, a lot A lot of it just vanished.

I want to throw some flowers to your boy, Mark, Brock Purdy, who will be obviously the subject of exhaustive examination for the next two weeks. I thought the beginning of this game and even into and including that throw, the big completion to Ayuk, was everything that has concerned me about Purdy in big spots this season. But the fact of the matter is, sometimes you just got things are with you. Things are clicking and you're having a good season. He did throw. He got away with a couple of bad throws, a couple of floaters. He survived them. The other team didn't take advantage of it. But then when it was time to win the game in the second half, just like he did it in the end of the game against the packers, he made big plays. He was precise with his throwing. Most of all, the thing I think people will remember about this purdy performance is how many big plays he made with his legs. For a guy that is obviously Mr. Irrelevant, not the most athletic, how many times did he escape pressure and turn a sack or a no gain into 10, 15, 18 yards?

That was a big difference in this game as well.

Yeah, the 21-yard run that came after the Gibbs fumble that set up a Christian McAfree to tie the game at 24, 24. It's like, you don't just expect that from Brock Purdy. I thought tonight, he had something like 50 something yards on the ground. Let's see, 48, 9.6 yards per carry. He added it to his game. It's like, this is a really young quarterback who's adding something to his game. It's like, even when Mahomes did that last season, I thought to some degree, it was like, what more can Mahomes do? It's like in the playoffs, Mahomes on the ground with a high ankle sprain was a differentiator game after game. In this game, Brock Purdy added that to his palate.

He had the huge run last week. It was only one against the packers, but by far a career high in rushing. It's funny because compared to the average NFL quarterback now, he's You're right. He's not that athletic, but he does have good short area quickness. You could see it in some of... He can move. If you put him in the NFL 20 years ago, he's a better than average runner. He is above the line that you almost need to be now.

Is he Jeff Garcia? Maybe.

Right. No, Jeff Garcia is a great runner. He's athletic enough is what I'm saying. He made those. Now, he was fortunate. I felt like the opening drive of the was very typical of how his game was. Two absolute big boy throws. It's almost hard to remember by then. One where he was getting hit, another just beautiful ball placement, and then he almost threw an interception that they dropped. To start the second half on that field goal drive, that drive ended almost... He was melting down at the end of that drive. He had three crazy decisions in a row before they kicked that field goal, and he got away with a throw too late.

That's when I thought I might be getting a Darnold sideline shot. Double fingers crossed.

He's not a very safe player, but the mistakes that he makes doesn't linger, and he didn't really make any the rest of the game.

One of the passes that you're talking about on the first drive, because there was a perfect throw to Brandon Ayuk, but there was a play on third down where he completed a pass to Debo Samuel, where he was destroyed on it. I just do think he's a tough quarterback. Oh, yeah. He was like, there's no questioning the fact that he will do anything to make the play. He's tough.

He's easy to root for. He's got the guts of a burglar, as they say. He doesn't. If he throws interceptions, he's going to keep throwing, which could lead to games like Christmas and Baltor, but also it shows that he's not afraid. He believes in himself. By the way, going back, and I will... Yes, maybe the fumble, the immediate fumble after that, TD is It's a play that really swung the game.

It gets forgotten a little bit because everything was going... It just happened so quick to fumb on the first play of the drive.

The Ayuk catch off the miss by Vildor. Ayuk! Ayuk! Ayuk! Ayuk is the play that I'll remember as when everything turned and when this truly became Momentable, Greg. Let's listen to the Dan, because I want to hear from Dan Miller. It's a bummer that they are not getting to the Super Bowl, and I think it's 66 years now without the Lions winning a championship. Here's the call of that play from the Detroit side of things. Then right after that, if we could, Eric, play Ayouk's postgame comments about the play.

Purdy out of the gun.

Purdy takes the snap, back and looking, looking, looking, loading, throwing deep downfield.

It is up in the air and caught by Ayouk.

Oh, my God.

Hit the hands of Kindle Bill Dor.

Ayouk made the grab.

There is a He got a flag down as well.

Wow.

It looks like he's going to go against the Lions.

There is no foul in the play. Catch was made.

He went down in for the contact with the four and a half more line. He went right through fill doors' hands and write off his face mask.

Exactly right.

Man. Before the game, a lady bug landed on my shoe. And you all know what that means. So that's all I can say because other than that, I don't know. I don't know. Just great luck. God was with us today. Great win. Bang, bang, not our game. It's crazy. Superstar. That probably was the moment, although the Gibbs fumble really cemented it, that Lions fans must have started feeling like, Oh, my God.

Greg, I said it. When it was 24-24 after the fumbling score, it already felt like 34-24. Then it was in the blink of another eye.

The score at that point is 24-10. You just feel like if you're a Lions fan, you've been seeing Lady bugs landing on other team's shoes for 50 something years, and you felt like this was maybe the year that was going to be different. We have Dan Campbell talking after the game about how there's no guarantee that you ever do to get back to this point. Look, I told those guys, this may have been our only shot. Do I think that? No. Do I believe that? However, I know how hard it is to get here. I'm well aware, and it's going to be twice as hard to get back to this point next year than it was this year. That's the reality.

Well, I would say this, though. You can look across and point to the Niners and say that a team that's really well-built like the Lynes, I don't think they overachieve this year. I think they adequately achieve for the roster they have, but they're not going away.

I get what he's saying, but there's a lot of hope for the line. For every 49ers team and every Chief's team, and back in the day, every Patriots team, there are so many other teams that look like they have a bright tomorrow, and you think, Oh, they'll be back next year. We talked about this last week, too. You just never know. And he's right because this was a-That's why I like him telling them that.

I like him telling them that because that's also who he is.

I'm glad that he's being honest because this was a good time to strike for the Detroit lines in that division with the packers trying to figure things out, the bears still trying to figure things out, the Vikings being the Vikings. This felt like their chance, and they let it slip away. When we have Dan Campbell, I don't know what's going on with Dan's nose the last couple of weeks. Very red. It's been distracting to me. Is that bothering anyone else?

I hadn't noticed that, but now I'll not...

Eric raises his hand. I'm the most colorblind man in America. His nose looked great to me.

I mean, it's a very masculine nose, the shape and structure of it, but there's a discoloration or a high coloration. Sorry to rub it in, Greg. Here's more Campbell on the game that almost was.

Coach Shannon is a hell of a coach. That's a team that they've done it, they lived it, and they made the plays. So credit to them. I'm really proud of all these guys I am. I mean, It's hard when you lose that way. It's hard. You feel like you get your heart ripped out.

And on the other side with Shanaan, because I thought something he said after the game really illuminated how special they are and how different they are. He said, We played as bad of a first half as we could, but we were still within 17. How many teams can say that and be like, We're all right. It's only 17. That's a three-score game in the second half of the NFC Championship game. But that's not just coach speak. He knows he has the dogs to dig out, and they made him look great in this game because they lose this game, Greg, Mark. There's a lot of chatter around Shana and the guy that just can't get over the hum. Instead, in two weeks, he gets another chance to really stamp himself as, if not the top of the chain of coaches right there.

I think it's easy to feel almost a sadness if you're a generalist and you're not rooting specifically for one of these teams, that you lose the experience of the lions going on to do something that would be- It would have been fun. It would have been fun. But that said, if we shift focus in a couple of days, what the Niners have been through and how close they've come and how close Shana Khan has come. He knows you can come back from 17 because he lived through 28 to 3. He's lived through a thousand moments coaching in all different situations, and he's got the right people on the field to do it. I mean, this guy has been doing this for entire life. It's like there is a part of me that's like, I cannot help but root for Kyle Shana Khan to finally do it because he has come so close over and over.

Well, yeah, because they know how the further you get, the more brute are the loss is. This will be the fourth time in five years. I mean, they're not a dynasty in the way that we use the word, but to make four conference finals in five years, to make two Super Bowl now in five seasons, You just feel like you got it. You got to win. Those conference finals, by the way, were brutal losses. You got to win. You got to get it done. I do think they learned. They can't fall down like that against the Chiefs, obviously, but I do think they learned something about themselves because I think one of the reasons I thought this team was not built to make that come back wasn't the offense. It was that their defense looked like trash for large portions of this packers and lions game. That's something to be concerned about. The lions had almost 200 yards. I just thought the game script was such that the lines would be able to run the ball in the second half. The lines still ended up with 182. Montgomery, 15 for 93, Gibbs, 12 for 45, and Jamieson, Williams had that electric 42-yard countdown to start the game.

And yet, give the defense credit, too, when they needed to in the second half, they do have a lot of star players, and they came together enough. Their run defense, which is a problem, and we'll talk about it leading up to Super Bowl, it did get good enough when it really mattered to get them over the line.

Unbelievable. Yeah, I can't. And that was, by the way, the Sunday Drive presented by Toyota. What a drive. Of course it was. Let's go places like Las I guess. Learn more at Toyota. Com/grandhighlander. Yeah, I'm not going to lie. Listen, if it's not the Jets playing, I'm not going to get overly invested in terms of heartbreak. Although I feel for Cynthia Freeland, who's a friend of ours. I absolutely feel Patra, who we know forever, and he was lined up to be on the show tonight. I was texting with him earlier late last week. We tried to get him on on Thursday. We couldn't make it happen. I was like, How about Sunday if they win? Just knowing... Listen, Patra, you We're not texting Patrick. Give him a wide berth as you would any diehard fan right now. I don't even like that the email is sitting in his inbox right now.

No, he's probably in the streets of Detroit.

Eric is doing his job. Listen, Eric, we're not coming after you because you're doing your To make a show like we do, there has to be things like setting up linkups for essentially a feed into the studio. But listen, you've never met Kevin Patra. He's an intense, powerful man who works out. I don't want you to be hurt. The timing of it all was just very, very unlucky because as I'm trying to set this up, okay, hey, if they win, we're going to do this.

I'm like, Hey, got to get this. And now moving parts. And as I'm sending this link, it's flipping. And then I get separate messages from both Dan and Greg.

Hey, don't-Mark wasn't even worried about Patrick. He's like, If he dies, he dies.

Don't message him directly, especially at this moment.

Never even crossed Mark's mind. But yeah, hopefully, it just went to spam.

Here's the thing, and I'm not saying you should do this because this could lead to other problems. If you could somehow hack into the NFL Network mainframe to unsend that email before Pacha wakes up for his 5:00 AM shift tomorrow to write news items about this great comeback by the Niners, I think it would be in your best interest. I'll leave it there. I didn't say to do it. I'm just saying that's one thing you might want to think about. What if I just spam him so it just gets pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed? That's another potential incredible haul. It feels like a lot of work. He's got to be very careful, I would say.

I think he will survive.

Mexico is an option as well. He'll be okay. If he comes at us, we'll just blame it on the shadowy league bigger who actually lost the game for the lines by sending a text that-Can't do that. That jinks them when they were up 17. You can't do that.

Can't do it. What I was saying Because if it's not the Jets, I'm not really going to be heartbroken about anything. But I will say I did, just like probably a lot of people, I had thoughts of 100,000 lines fans coming into Vegas. As we've been We're lucky to cover so many Super Bowl, and we're going to be doing it again, and I can't wait. That would have been a completely unique, obviously, new experience, and hopefully, the lines get over the hump down the line. But there's no doubting what Campbell said is absolutely true. You, you don't know. You just never know if you're going to get another crack at it. When you get to this level at this stage, to let it slip away is just crushing. Yeah.

They showed the... This is unusual, but they cut to Ford Field, which was a capacity crowd I remember as a child watching like, Russellmania 3, not at Russellmania 3, but at a stadium with a bunch of other people, which my dad was forced to take me to, a highly nerdy event.

They used to do like, closed circuit.

Yeah, it was closed circuit. This was the opposite of that. This was like a city, literally celebrating, for many of them, the biggest event that they've ever come together for. So they stopped showing that stadium as the second half happened.

Two things I'm wondering about. The procession back to the parking lot in the port field. Also, I saw one One shot of M&M who was at the game in San Francisco doing a double bird to a bunch of fans in the suite in the level below him. What is M&M's exit route out of Levi's stadium? Does he stay in the end? Unpleasant. Does he pull a Mark Wahlberg and leave in the third quarter of '283 to get it to beat the crowd? Is Marshall Mather is currently bralling with multiple fans of the opposition? I don't know.

No, I'd say that you get a couple of your friends to wrap you in blankets and take you out like a dead body, and no one knows that it's got to have some security.

That's true. We saw that there's actually footage of Taylor Swift being snuck from backstage to the stage before one of her concerts in a cleaning person's cart. That was a way to maybe do that with Marshall Mads.

This is definitely the playoffs in the season in general, where we've got minor and major celebrities crawling out of the suites into to the crowd itself or-Memon was in the crowd.Or he was antagonizing them.

He was sitting in the crowd. I don't think 49ers fans would even look as scant at you or us having that view. They're different. The lions are different.

I don't know about that, Greg. I think the Irish fans don't... They're annoyed we're even talking about this right now.

Well, they can eat it. There were 24 teams.

That's why he's the bad boy of NFL media.

There were 24 teams.

Give him a guitar squill.

It's like wine and cheese.

I'm just saying there were 24 teams that were in the NFL when the NFL truly started, the merger. There's one of those 24 teams that have not been to the Super Bowl. Eat it, baby. That is the Detroit Lions. And there's another team on the other side, and I know it's been a minute, who've won five Super Bowl. So yes, the average fan is going to root for that fan base who has been through more heartache than anyone who's never even really had a chance in that this was their chance. Of course, the average fan is going to be root for them.

It was new. That's what we talked about.

A little less juice in terms of Uniqueness. But at the end of the day, we are not complaining because Chiefs V9ers is going to be a hell of a game. Andy Reid versus Kyle Shannon. That is gorgeous. It's happened before, and it was a great game last time. I have a feeling, just like the desert is feeling right now, that it's going to go down to the wire again. That is the game. Next time you hear us doing a recap. Well, we're sending Mark to Orlando, correct? To cover all the Pro Bowl games. What am I doing? Just dodgeball, the triple jump, tag.

Can Dino defend his Pro Bowl flag football MVP? He had that big drive to finish.

I think there's a miniature golf shootout.

I officially do not have time for that.

No, Mark is coming to Vegas with us, and we're going to cover all the games. We still, of course, have two weeks of shows before that. So make sure you're there and tuning in. Anything else?

Yeah, we'll be back Tuesday. Tuesday.

Music is playing. I guess nothing else. That's it.

That's a wrap. Thank you to everybody who has been listening every Sunday all season. One game left. Heed the call.