12-8-22 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

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That's bluenile.com code radio. Good morning! Jay's cranky. Let's ignore him.

We're just going to nod and smile and move on. Jay, don't even act like you aren't either because just cop to it. Cranky wouldn't be the adjective I'd go with. Oh, what would be the adjective?

Sickly, ill. He's definitely acting like a baby. All of those things, yes. He's in here in my studio whining during the commercial break. Alright, there was a little bit of whining. Okay, thank you. There was a little bit of whining.

He accidentally kicked the desk. I was expressing myself. You definitely were emoting. And I appreciate that you feel as though you're comfortable enough with me that you can give, you can just like lay all the crap on me. All the crap. All the crap. He's already talking about, he's laying the groundwork for calling in sick today.

No. What were you doing? I said I don't want to have to is how I started that, but just, you know, things are...

The fact that you even spoke it. I don't get sick often, you know that. Every time I leave you get sick. This is the thing with producer Jay, every single time I take a night off, the 24 hours before I leave, I'm not feeling so well. It's uncanny how often he gets sickly. That's a reflex.

I don't know what it is. I just know if it's acid reflex, whatever it is, I just know that you tend to be sickly on the days when you know I'm not going to be here. But this is early even for you because I'm not taking another night off until next Thursday night when my niece graduates from college. I have to be on the road to get to Virginia. You have decided already that you're going to take off tomorrow night. My body's a week ahead. Tonight. Wait, tonight? Yes, Thursday night.

Your body's a week ahead? I don't even know what to do about this. If you call in sick, you're dead meat. Dead, I tell you. Dead meat. When was the last time you heard someone say dead meat? That's an 80s phrase. That's a karate kid phrase. You're dead meat. If someone said that to me now, like, and seriously meant it, I would be pretty afraid because no one uses that anymore.

So to actually say it and mean it would have to be. Have you ever thought about it? It's kind of gross. It's essentially another phrase for roadkill. You're dead meat. Do you want to be dead meat? I don't want to be dead meat. I want to be very much alive meat. Well, then come to work. I'll try if I'm alive.

I might be dead meat by the time I wake up. See what I mean? See what I have to deal with?

My body has to deal with right now? He's been like nails on a chalkboard all night. Whining, complaining, drinking Dr. Pepper. Might help.

But here's the thing. I offered him Dayquil. I offered him Tylenol.

No. No, he wants to get sick. He doesn't want to feel better. So he has something to complain about and whine about.

My body will do what it needs to either fight or flight. That's not funny. You're an idiot. Yeah. Yeah. Right now, a bit of a whiny one.

At least you didn't deny it and act like it didn't happen. There was some whining last break. Yeah. Yes. Okay. A little bit.

Someone's got to keep us anchored and our feet on the ground. Let's not get ahead of ourselves here and start calling in sick like you're some kind of entitled, you know. To my sick day?

Yes. Which I'd never take. I think I have 400 sick days. Over the course of nearly 10 years, I've accumulated about 400 sick days. I think I've called in sick like legit. One time I called in sick for my dog, I didn't, of course, tell the boss that. Good morning, boss.

He's not listening. I think I've only legit called in sick three times. That's it. In the whole... You know, in 2020, no, 2019, sorry, I worked through a month of walking pneumonia. It's October. How do you take off in October?

I can't take off time in October. That's true. So I worked.

Walking pneumonia, not lying down pneumonia. So all's good. Yeah. Just get this, for an entire month, every time I laughed, I started coughing.

It was awful. Is that contagious? Pneumonia? Yeah. Nah.

Nah. It developed from a chest cold. So it went from a chest cold into pneumonia and I couldn't get rid of it. I had to have an inhaler and I couldn't run for over a month. It was crazy.

Every time I tried to walk fast, I would cough, but yeah, laughing turned into coughing. That'd be... It was probably terrible radio, so I do apologize for that. Excuse me. Yep.

I was Jerry Jones. Maybe that's what he has. Although I did not drink Jack for my walking pneumonia. Get me some oxygen.

I didn't need oxygen though. Shot of Jack. Or a shot of Jack.

That sounds serious though. So good. Thank you, Jerry, for all of the moments of mirth that you've provided for us. We're live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios, though Jay is half dead, he says. Yep. That's Jay right there. Turn off your microphone.

Do you need to know what it takes for a home to fit your budget and your family? Rocket can. Can I tell you? I knew this was going to happen.

It wouldn't take long. This is why I showed some grace to our friend John Heyman, Odyssey Baseball insider. Now, he did create this epic character, Arson Judge. We will never ever forget you, Arson. It was not until Wednesday morning that it became Aaron Judge trending on Twitter and not Arson Judge. I actually think Arson Judge might be more exciting. I mean, Aaron's got more money, but Arson has got a personality. Aaron's sometimes very straight laced.

We could get Arson to be his alter ego. We had so much fun. You guys sent me hundreds of suggestions for walk-up music. And so it was really good. We had fun with it and I'm glad you enjoyed the show. Many of you posted on our social media that you thought it was the best show in a long time and that you were laughing.

So that's great. That's always the goal here on the show is to entertain and certainly to make you laugh. Sadly, we had to move on from Arson Judge. But one of the reasons why I did not pile on John Heyman and I said this is all in good fun is because I am constantly getting names wrong. Now, I think that was an autocorrect, but you want to play that Charles Barkley?

I think we did it at the end of last show. So we also discovered this kind of fun little snippet from inside the NBA on TNT where Charles Barkley gets a name wrong. He consistently does it, though, like all the time. Jason Taylor.

Jason Taylor instead of Jason Tatum. Again, I tried to show some grace and not pile on because that would be calling the kettle black. That would be hypocritical because you know what I do? I get names wrong all the time. I'll give the first name to the wrong guy.

I'll have the last name correct, but I'll have his first name wrong. And I'm not going to tell you, but I've done it a couple of times with the same guy here on this show. So I'm not telling you who it is.

If you didn't hear it, well, then you didn't hear it. I hope you know who I meant. You probably did. But yeah, how in the world can I be making fun of anybody else? I tease because I care.

I kid because I care. And as I mentioned last night, we invited John Heyman to be on the show with us. He felt like he was burning the candle at both ends. I know he did appearances on MLB Network. In fact, late last night, we'll let you hear from him in a second. He sounds like, well, he sounds like he actually has a legit reason to call into work, not like producer Jay. Jay's eyes just popped up over the top of the computer. Oh, wait, you're talking about me?

Yes. So John Heyman, he made an honest mistake, but he made another one on Thursday night, or Thursday afternoon. Wait, I'm sorry, today's Thursday.

He made another one on Wednesday afternoon, which Jay drew my attention to, as well as various members of our social media brigade. Apparently, he accidentally called Cole Hamels Coke Hamels. You can't make that up. That's got to be autocorrect. It's got to be. He's got to turn it off then on his phone, if that's the case. Okay, maybe, or maybe just read the tweet, or have someone proofread it before you hit it. That's always the case. But, yeah, I mean, we have Arson Judge and we have Coke Hamels.

We can do an entire army or entire baseball roster of John Heyman characters. It's fantastic. I really thought he was trying to just be funny and use as, like, make a light of it. Did you, on purpose? I really did. And then I saw him delete the tweet, and I was like, no, John, you did it again. Yeah, but not before it got screenshotted, believe me, because people send it. Oh, you screenshotted? Yeah, I had to get in there.

Did you send it to your baseball text message chain? I didn't, but actually another friend of mine was like, John, what's going on, man? He's like, he's at another point in time.

He's like, get some sleep. Right, so just to prove our point, to underscore our point about poor John Heyman, who obviously doesn't make enough money, when Xander Bogarts decided that he would sign in San Diego and leave Boston after a decade, Heyman was all over it on MLB Network. Xander Bogarts is a terrific player. First of all, he's been a great shortstop. He's won two championships, one as a third baseman, one as a shortstop. He is a great hitter. He's improved defensively, the same age as Trey Turner. He's getting a little bit less than Trey Turner. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To me, it makes sense.

It surprised me a little bit that it was this high, but as I look at it, as I look at the stats, I think they're fairly comparable players, so you know what, I get it. He's tired. He has not smoked an entire pack of cigarettes before he went on MLB Network. He's just tired. That's what my voice sounds like when I'm losing it. When it gets overtaxed and I'm tired, it sounds very raspy. I call myself a lounge singer.

I sound like a lounge singer. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What was the word?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Why are you being so mean? Stop it. All that to say, we need to give him some grace, because I have also mismatched names on this edition of the show, and are you kidding me? I make up words like he just did right there.

So we love you, Jon Heyman, and you're welcome on the show anytime. With or without Arson, Judge, and Coke Hamels. I can't even see it with a straight face.

I tried. Coke Hamels. It's tremendous. It is. It's definitely autocorrect, though, because he didn't type Coke Hamels.

The only thing is, the K and the L are right next to each other on the keyboard, so maybe he did accidentally do that one. Garrett Pepsi. Garrett Pepsi.

It's fantastic. I'm telling you, we could come up with all kinds of characters. Just a Jon Heyman army. Alright, let's get back to business.

Fine, we'll be serious. Right after we got off the air yesterday morning, Aaron Judge picked to stay in New York, picked a contract that gave him nine years, and ultimately that's what he wanted from the Yankees. Yes, he wanted the money, but the money was never really the issue for New York. The Yankees, they have money.

They're good. The Steinbrenners don't mind spending money. What he wanted was to have a deal with extra job security longer than what they initially offered him. And so, yes, he gets his nine years, his $360 million. He decides that he will stay in New York. And according to most insiders, most people who are following the situation and kind of know his team and the people around him, he wanted to stay in New York. All things being equal, yes, there's the draw of going home to San Francisco, but he wanted to finish what he started in New York. He likes playing in New York. He's built something, and he's part of something in New York that he didn't want to leave.

And to be able to earn the extra, what was it, like $147 extra million over that initial contract the Yankees offered him last year, I love the story, and it's great that it happened to a good guy. Most people will tell you Aaron Judge is a good guy. I'm sure he has an ego. Every athlete at that level has to have an ego.

You have to believe in yourself. He knew that if he stayed healthy, he could put together the best season he's ever had. And he did. He took that risk.

It may not feel like a risk now, but considering the fact that he missed chunks of time over the previous couple seasons, to stay healthy the entire season the way that he did, and to really not even want to take days off when his manager thought he should, even after he hit the 62 home runs, he didn't want to take the day off. This is the kind of guy that is a foundation piece, a cornerstone in your clubhouse. And I like that he wanted to stay. I like that he appreciates not just the New York fans, even though they booed him at the end like dodos, but also likes what he's a part of in New York. We don't always get this with athletes, right? Sometimes athletes take the most money and they jet.

And it's not like he's getting underpaid or undervalued or underappreciated. But how often do we lament to sports fans? He left. She left. They didn't stay. We got jilted. We believed in you. You broke up with us. You're down and devastated about a player leaving.

I could give you countless examples, but the one that comes to mind last year is Freddie Freeman. Braves fans were devastated. Well, Yankees fans would have felt like that, even if they tried to put on a Brave face or put on that Yankee scowl, that New York Yankees fan scowl. We're bigger than any player. Well, yeah, that's true.

The laundry is always the most important thing. The laundry brings fans together, but that would have been a monumental loss for the Yankees. You don't replace an Aaron Judge. And I don't just mean his numbers, because those aren't going to be his numbers every year. You don't replace an Aaron Judge in terms of his stature, in terms of his value to the team, in terms of his attractiveness across baseball and across all sports. He transcends the game.

You don't replace that. That's his earnings power. And I'm glad he knew that. I'm glad he recognized that he had leverage. Ultimately, has anyone ever had more leverage than what Aaron Judge just did in a contract year? I guess Freeman actually, though his numbers weren't quite as good, but he was coming off a World Series campaign. So, yeah, when you've got the leverage, and this is likely his last contract, right?

Because this one's nine years. It'll take him through his 40-year-old season or somewhere close to that. And so good for him. Let's applaud the fact, if you're one of those people that wants to see an athlete in the same uniform his entire career, although the Yankees have like seven versions of the uniforms, but if you want to see an athlete stay put, celebrate Aaron Judge. Even if you were rooting for him to leave because you don't like the Yankees, celebrate the story that ends with him staying put. Because how often do we lament this as sports fans? We get attached. We love these players. We love what they've done. We root hard for them.

We feel like they're part of our families. And then they leave. And that's life, right? That's free agency. That's any career. For some reason, we begrudge athletes the ability to move around and change jobs, even though that's what we do all the time. I can't even list the number of jobs and places I've worked on my two hands. A lot of us climb career ladders.

Why can't athletes do it? Well, because as fans, we get emotional. We get attached. It's hard to break up with our favorite players. And so how often is the storyline, he left! He's dead to me! Not in this case.

Aaron Judge stayed. And I think that should be celebrated, even if it's irrational, illogical, and completely emotional. We relate to that. We can identify. We identify as irrational, illogical, and completely emotional as sports fans.

At least we have that in common. So, congratulations to Aaron, and yes, the breaking news late last night, the second of this quad of shortstops, Xander Bogarts. He decides to go to San Diego. Ultimately, they made him an offer he couldn't refuse, and according to the reports, the Red Sox weren't close.

They weren't going to give him the 11 years, and they weren't close in terms of that job security, and so he felt like he had no choice. Still, more to come, of course, in Major League Baseball, though the winter meetings are done. Couple of, I was going to say fun endings in basketball, but that's not actually the case. We'll call them a couple of high profile matchups in basketball, as well as the other half of your QB news. We're looking forward to week 14 in the NFL.

This blew me away. I saw it on Twitter earlier on Wednesday. 5 weeks left. Are you kidding me?

5 weeks left in the NFL regular season? Wow. But good morning. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. I'm Amy Lawrence. We'll be right back. Thank you.

I'm Amy Lawrence. Alertak. Alex Tuck gets it to Tage Thompson, who goes forehand, backhand upstairs for the score. Sabers get it ahead, now through the neutral zone, here comes Thompson in, and he roots it into the upper right hand corner for the score. Back out to Skinner, across to Thompson, he one times it in for the score. Tage Thompson has three of the five Buffalo Sabres goals, and what a night he's having, and we've played just over half a period. Skinner goes to the right side to come back to Thompson, now Skinner, back to Thompson again, and he scores another one-timer from the face-off dot. He's got four goals tonight. On the left side, here's Tage Thompson, and he buries it, oh my goodness. Tage Thompson fires one into the upper right hand corner from the left wing circle, and he has, are you ready, his fifth goal of the game.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. His fifth goal of the game. There's a reason why there wasn't more exuberance on the part of that play by play announcer, that was Blue Jackets radio. I promise you, we tried to find the Sabres radio version, but have not had any luck.

We looked in all the normal places and couldn't find it, but we wanted to put it out there because this was one historic night for Tage Thompson. Sabres forward, who tied a franchise record with five goals in Columbus last night. Holy cow, actually tied the mark early in the second period, so he had a first period hat trick, and the Sabres were well on their way to a 9-4 win. He's now up over 20 goals on the season, but yeah, just the second player in his franchise history ever to have five goals in a game, Dave Andrejchuk.

He had that number back in the 1980s. Anyway, kind of cool to have this moment, and you can imagine for Tage, it's a big deal. It's obviously a really exciting game. Any time you score nine goals, it's a fun way to win, but I think the biggest takeaway is just how good we played. I think we paid attention to the details, and we put six goals up in the first period. That was an amazing performance by Tage, and really the whole group set the table.

I thought the energy, the effort, the collective effort focused to start was really good and enabled that to happen, but to have a history with Tage, seeing him as a teenager and watching his growth and development, it's really special for me to be a part of his success, to watch that happen. Don Granato, I was thinking about this when Tage was talking, how hockey players have this uncanny ability to A, downplay injuries and B, never sound excited about anything. They're monotone.

Why are they always so monotone? It's okay to get excited. It was really exciting. I scored five goals. Obviously, when you can score goals, it makes it more fun.

Sounds like Jay talking about he was going to be sick on Thursday night. I mean, even Ovechkin, who we played at the last hour, who we scored his career goal number 794, 795. He's like, yeah, it was all right.

Well, I mean, been there, done that. He's done a lot more in his career, but I would expect that when he gets to 800, he'll be a little more exuberant. We know that Alex Ovechkin can let loose, though, because we heard him in one of what I will call the most epic championship celebrations ever. I still have the video saved on my Twitter, him lifting the Stanley Cup for the first time and just letting loose. I love it so much, but even when he hoisted the trophy for the first time and as the captain, he's so long, he was the bridesmaid and never the bride, finally gets to hoist that. It's going to be me. I'm telling you what, when I get married, he hoisted the Stanley Cup and all of that relief just comes pouring out of him in this grand release, and so I love it.

We know he's got more than monotone in him, but for Tage Thompson, it's like a thing. You can't step out of line. You've got to act like it doesn't matter. It was really exciting. Great. But really, we won. Yay.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. It's a fun way to win. Yeah, it's a fun way to win. Only the fourth player in NHL history, apparently he didn't know about that, to score four goals in a period hasn't happened since the mid-90s.

Oh, look at that. The 80s and 90s are back, baby. It's obviously a really exciting game.

It's such a really exciting game. You can find me on Twitter, ALOL Radio. Speaking of the 80s and the 90s, I meant to mention this yesterday morning, but I'll mention it now. Happy birthday, December 7th, also Pearl Harbor Day. My all-time favorite basketball player and my most coveted interview, though he doesn't really do interviews anymore, so I probably have missed my window. Larry Legend, Larry Bird, turned 66 on Wednesday, December 7th, and so I did tweet about him.

A lot of you responded with videos or quick gifts, but yeah, I love him, and every time December 7th comes around, I wonder about him and think, you're telling me there's a chance someday. He's removed himself from a lot of the basketball world and certainly a ton of media. That was never his favorite thing anyway, which is another reason why he was really like the Bill Belichick of basketball. Just very dry, cut and dried, and didn't want to tell you anything. We don't have time for that.

We don't have time for that. It was all about the basketball and also hitting full court shots to get his teammates out of practice. He was big into that, too. Lots of trash talking. Tons of smack talk. These Celtics that are playing now in 2022, well, they could be talking smack.

Certainly, after their performance against the first-place Suns on Wednesday night, they've got plenty of bragging rights. Tatum steps to his left. His three right down the middle. Timeout, Bonnie Williams, but to say what?

Crank the bus up, man. That's what you say. Under out of bounds. Cornette muscle, but he's able to throw it out towards Sam Houser and knocks down a three. 14th of the night for the Celtics, and they have the 40-point lead back, 109 to 69. Richard moving to his left, goes to the far corner for a Sam Houser three.

This is so fair, man. With the nation watching, the East leading Celtics blast the West leading Suns by as many as 45 en route to a blowout win. This is one game, so we just got to come back and take it one game at a time and get ready for the next. Okay, also boring.

What is it with all this post-game audio? Jalen Brown, this doesn't make a statement, says that on NBC Sports Boston. It's just one game.

It's true, but come on, the truth isn't always fun. 25 for Jalen, 25 for Jason Taylor, or Tatum, depending upon if you're Charles Barkley. His name is Jason Taylor. And he's an MVP candidate. The Celtics shot 49% from the floor in Phoenix, and this game was out of hand in the second quarter. They're not joking. Sean Grandy, Cedric Maxwell on Celtics radio, 45 points. Are you kidding me?

You should be ashamed of yourselves. But also welcome back, Chris Paul. It was a much more impressive finish or much more enticing finish in Utah. Here's the situation. Malik Beasley has just hit a three to pull the Jazz within one point of the Warriors, with seven seconds to go on the clock, Golden State ball. Bounce pass in the pool. It's knocked away.

It's stolen. Jazz have it. Beasley to Fortecco to the jam in the lead. 124-123.

Jerome baseball outlet. Tipped. Loose. Jazz win.

Holy smoke. What just happened? You watched.

You're asking me what happened. You just watched the game. We didn't take care of the ball. We turned it over and they took the game. And it's a shame because our guys did a lot of great stuff. I thought to that point they really fought and earned the right to win the game. And then we didn't close it. And you got to close it. You know, you got to be rock solid with the ball. You got to be smart defensively.

And we were neither of those things the last 13 seconds. You watched it. You know what happened.

Why are you asking me? What just happened? That's David Locke on Utah Jazz Radio. So yeah, Jordan Poole has his pocket picked, kind of. He fumbled the ball and the Jazz recovered it and were able to get a dunk at the other end. And so that was a stunning finish. And especially since it was off the bench, players rarely use. But Simon Fonteccio now, he's got himself a highlight reel moment. And the Warriors end up losing by a point.

So yeah, that was a fun finish. Well for the Jazz and their fans there in Salt Lake City. All right, we know about Von Miller. The Bills moving forward without him. He's got a torn ACL, at least partially torn. And so he's out for the rest of the season. But here are the Buffalo Bills moving into another game, week 14. And having to think about holding off the rest of the AFC East, which includes the Jets who are in Orchard Park on Sunday. So no rest for the weary. Got to move forward without your star or pass rusher. A little bit of QB news on the AFC side coming up.

It's after hours. The holidays are only a few days away. Are you ready? Find that perfect gift for someone special with jewelry from Blue Nile right now during Blue Nile site-wide holiday sale. Get deals on their endless selection of bold gold styles, gemstone jewelry, and classic diamond pieces.

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Ready to propose this holiday season? With just a few days left, Blue Nile can help. Blue Nile offers online tools to help you build a one-of-a-kind ring.

Choose from thousands of diamonds and settings. Order now to take advantage of Blue Nile site-wide holiday deals and get free two-day shipping just in time for that holiday proposal. Go to bluenile.com and use code radio to save $50 on purchases of $500 or more.

That's bluenile.com code radio. The holidays are only a few days away. Are you ready? Find that perfect gift for someone special with jewelry from Blue Nile right now during Blue Nile site-wide holiday sale. Get deals on their endless selection of bold gold styles, gemstone jewelry, and classic diamond pieces.

Need your piece fast? Order today and get free two-day shipping. Shop now and save up to 40% on the season's most stunning trends at bluenile.com. That's bluenile.com.

Bluenile.com. Touchdown! Joe Burrow and the Bengals. The Holmes fires for the end zone, caught. Touchdown! Kansas City! And off to Ekler again.

No, Herbert keeps it in zone. Touchdown! Chargers! Herbert with his second of the day.

Here's the snap. Josh going to keep it himself and run it again inside the five into the end zone. Touchdown Buffalo! Josh Allen, nine-yard touchdown run. The Bills respond and then some. It's time for QB News on After Hours.

Yeah, yeah. Week 14 on the horizon and it begins with Thursday Night Football. Here's why you will want to watch. We could see Baker Mayfield on the field. We could see Baker on the Mayfield for the Los Angeles Rams.

Hello. They take on the Las Vegas Raiders. So the Rams are three and nine. It would be quite a feat. Even Sean McVay admits that this would be unprecedented in his NFL career for a quarterback who's not even been with the team 48 hours.

We'll see. Al Michaels will have much to say but for the Raiders, this is serious business here. They've won three in a row. Talking about turning a corner, feeling like the young defense is coming along and yet for Derek Carr, lots of questions about the Rams adding Baker. I'm not sure the systems that he's been in.

You know, the terminology and all that kind of stuff. There's some systems that you could possibly do that and you know all those things but you know that's more power to him but you know I'm focused on their defense because their defense is pretty good. More power to them. All right, so what makes that defense tick for the Rams? Playing really good football. You know, they're flying around. They have obviously some of the biggest names you know on the defensive side of the ball that you could ever you know see on the football field and you know they got guys playing at high level last week. You know, especially they didn't get the win but they're still doing a lot of really good things and so it's going to be a really good challenge for us. They don't have Aaron Donald this week though so among the biggest names in defense in football, at least you don't have to deal with the pass rush of Aaron Donald.

Yes. The menace that is Aaron Donald. So that's Raiders and Rams. I know, scintillating. Just think Baker Mayfield running around like a like his hair is on fire.

I'm not gonna fall for that trap. He definitely does that even when he's not only been with a team for 40 hours. That's Thursday Night Football Amazon Prime. We've got some scintillating divisional matchups coming up this weekend like the Bills hosting the New York Jets. Buffalo without Von Miller the rest of the way still have one of the top defenses in the league. So do the Jets though.

This could be a knockdown drag out on Sunday. We wish he's out there you know with us and we're praying for him. We're keeping him in our hearts but the only way is forward and you know guys got to step up and collectively we've got to come together and you know try to I guess have come together and diminish his absence as much as possible. Yeah you can't replace Von Miller.

His leadership has experienced his ferocious pursuit of quarterbacks but you definitely can have other guys other veterans step up. Right now fourth in the NFL are the Bills averaging 17.4 points against Jordan Poyer is a huge part of that defense and he was raving about his quarterback on the pat back of the show. He's not from this planet I'll tell you he's not from here he's from somewhere else somewhere else they make big gigantic quarterbacks just run people over and hurl them and throw the ball 90 yards down the field I don't know with a broken elbow crazy to see some of the plays that he made even in the New England game last week getting out of the tackle and flipping the ball the motor underhand or even the touchdown that he threw he gave kind of falling off to the side and and throwing it behind like I mean I'm sitting on the sideline like damn I'm just glad he's on our team. I'm just having us stop like that. I will admit that when I heard Jordan Poyer I thought he was going to say big gigantic something else so I'm glad that he did not say what I was expecting him to say.

We're a family-friendly show though Pat McAfee's not necessarily family-friendly. Jordan Poyer here on well not here but here after hours on CBS Sports Radio so Bills and Jets coming up this weekend you've also got Baltimore making a start against a division opponent in the Steelers without Lamar Jackson so this is Steelers and Ravens but it's Tyler Huntley who will be on the road in Pittsburgh. Tyus Bowser has full confidence in their backup QB. His confidence his poise um just I guess the fun spirit with him just going out there and playing this game and not having to worry about spectators or what people think of him he just goes out there and playing he knows that uh that we have his back and that's that's anybody's you know thing is to have somebody there to know that you got your back regardless of what you do out there so he can just go out there and play and just go with the flow of things and go out there and do his thing that we know that he can do. High praise for Tyler Huntley from the linebacker of the Ravens and yeah it's always you want to knock down drag out that is the case typically between the Ravens and the Steelers and this one could be even more so though I like the trajectory the Steelers are on their rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett benefiting from reps in-game reps from more time and more experience and certainly he says his friendship with offensive coordinator Matt Canada is also a big piece of it.

We connected pretty early on in high school we have a really good relationship where you know we can talk about pretty much anything we're open and honest on what I see and he asks me all the time and I think that open line of communication is just going to continue to improve and you know he's very open to suggestions that we all have as players of staff and it's a collective effort and you know it's definitely cool to have an OC that that's open to that and not just kind of you know close-minded so it's a pretty good relationship that he has with all of us. Like the Raiders you've got another AFC team here that started out with some pretty tough weeks a couple of tough stretches but now the Steelers have won three of four. We're scheduled to speak with a member of the Steelers defense on Thursday.

I'm just gonna say fingers crossed it's gonna be after practice we're hoping it works out I won't tell you who yet but hope to have that for you on a Thursday night show. Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals you want to talk about playing red hot they are locked in right now and as always Joe is very animated. Yeah we've been playing great our guys work really hard to put on good performances every Sunday and you know it's been showing on showing up on film and we're excited about where we're at big one this week another division game that you know we got to go and put our best foot forward. They have won six of seven so again among the hottest teams in the league right now tied for first place in the AFC North with those aforementioned Baltimore Ravens no one says aforementioned they're at eight and four and so this week it's Cincinnati and it's Cleveland and my goodness already people are asking if Kevin Stavanski will consider pulling Deshaun Watson if it's as bad as last week. No we're going down there to win a football game that is our focus Deshaun's our quarterback so we're focused on having a really good day of practice today and then you know having a great day on Sunday but that's where our focus is. All right well then how long will it take Deshaun Watson to shake off the Rust coach?

I don't know if I could put you know a time frame on that type of thing guys just I know he's working very hard he's locked in on the game plan working hard out of practice so like I mentioned you guys before I think there were things that come up in your first game back that that you have to just correct and I think all those things are what we're working on. Well thank goodness for the Brown special teams and defense three touchdowns last week and I do mean that personally thank you since it helped me to win my fantasy football matchup and get a bye in the playoffs I know no one cares about my fantasy team but thank you Cleveland that game takes place in Cincinnati which is where the Bengals beat the Chiefs last week. Couple of other quarterback notes the Texans are once again making a QB change here's Lovey Smith. Davis will start for us this week and we expect the two weeks of watching from the sideline to help and there are so many other things that we can do to help the quarterback position it's a lot more than just it. So a couple of weeks of Kyle Allen is all that Lovey Smith could stomach and the Texans are back to Davis Mills is this like a lamb to the slaughter in Dallas against that defense oh they cannot wait the Cowboys don't want to let their guard down though at home you want to protect the home field and they could get to 10 wins this weekend if they can take care of their business line them up against the Texans. All right finally Trevor Lawrence dealing with a bit of a bulky ankle but what about week 14?

I'm feeling better today um you know a little bit of soreness is this kind of is going down a little bit um obviously still still sore and kind of taking it day by day but um fortunate for sure you know I feel I feel pretty good. The Jacksonville Jaguars this weekend on the road at Tennessee. Jada we have time to hear from Mike Vrabel. I know it's not QB news but Mike Vrabel was asked against Wednesday's backdrop Wednesday's practice about losing John Robinson so the the general manager abruptly fired in the middle of the season even though the Titans are still first place in their division. Change is never easy but we we realize that we all have a job to do that job is evaluated each and every day. Personal feelings aren't what's important what's important is that we respect and understand the decision and that we move forward aligned and do everything that we can to prepare our players and and be great for them as we go out against the Jaguars at home with a division team. I like how he says that the jaguars we go out against the jaguars at home I mean Oregon Oregon Jaguars Jaguars against the jaguars pecans pecans jaguars at home let's see how it's New Orleans or New Orleans oh New Orleans or New Orleans New Orleans wait I heard actually New Orleans the other day New Orleans New Orleans New Orleans or New Orleans wait New Orleans what is it yes yes yes there are people who say they kind of blend it all together New Orleans New Orleans New Orleans New Orleans that actually sounded on point for you things I did not get you on this edition of the show I didn't get to order my ugly sweater I'm thinking something with the peanuts though also we'll have to get to this on our Thursday night show in amongst the football headlines uh Steve Clifford compared Kevin Durant to well quite an incredible basketball hall of famer and if you missed my college football interview with Brennan Huffman oh it's good stuff check it out on the podcast after hours CBS Sports Radio the holidays are only a few days away are you ready find that perfect gift for someone special with jewelry from Blue Nile right now during Blue Nile's site-wide holiday sale get deals on their endless selection of bold gold styles gemstone jewelry and classic diamond pieces need your piece fast order today and get free two-day shipping shop now and save up to 40 on the season's most stunning trends at Blue Nile.com that's Blue Nile.com Blue Nile.com the holidays are only a few days away are you ready find that perfect gift for someone special with jewelry from Blue Nile right now during Blue Nile site-wide holiday sale get deals on their endless selection of bold gold styles gemstone jewelry and classic diamond pieces need your piece fast order today and get free two-day shipping shop now and save up to 40 on the season's most stunning trends at Blue Nile.com that's Blue Nile.com Blue Nile.com the holidays are only a few days away are you ready find that perfect gift for someone special with jewelry from Blue Nile right now during Blue Nile site-wide holiday sale get deals on their endless selection of bold gold styles gemstone jewelry and classic diamond pieces need your piece fast order today and get free two-day shipping shop now and save up to 40 on the season's most stunning trends at Blue Nile.com that's Blue Nile.com Blue Nile.com