After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 3

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Get in the game and download the free Odyssey app today. We're already halfway through and we're just now getting knee deep in our wild card previews. Seahawks and Niners is a divisional game. It's the third time, it's the third time a charm for the Seahawks. Well, they certainly have surprised us in many ways this season. I do like that Geno Smith is a veteran, and even though this is his first year starting in a long time, and his first time in years being in charge of the offense, in charge of the huddle, it's clear that the faith and confidence Pete Carroll had in him going back to the beginning of OTAs has meant a world of difference.

And then the people around him. He's got a much better rapport with Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf, and we know about Kenneth Walker Jr., what that rookie running back has been able to do when he's on the field. I like that they're solid. I like that they run the ball and they attempt to stop the run. Now, they haven't been great at that this season, and so there is a major challenge. It's because San Francisco can hit you hard, and I do mean that literally, they can hit you hard.

They can also hit you a variety of ways from a bunch of different angles. And while the weather may play a factor, we'll see how nasty and messy it is, still both these teams can play the ball control game. It's just a matter of them finding a groove, and also you've got to avoid turnovers, especially when it comes to the playoffs and especially when it comes to a field that could be messy and could be tough. So yeah, the Seahawks, I think their major question is can they stop the run and can they do it consistently? It's strength, it's toughness, it's physical attacking, aggressive style for the San Francisco 49ers, and if they get you back on your heels, then you can find yourself chasing. Again, they can come at you from so many different angles with so many different ways to beat you, lots of different speeds for them too, but it's always aggressive. And the turnover certainly will play a role if you can't take care of the football, you think about the crowd there as well, if it turns out that the Niners get out to a hot start, and what that means against the Seahawks because they don't have their 12s behind them.

So there's a lot of different ways this could go. As much as Brock Purdy is a rookie, I don't expect him to have any major issues, even though this is a different stage, if he doesn't try to do too much. And I said on last night's show, that has impressed me about him. I don't see him trying to force it, trying to prove himself, I don't see him trying to take on the whole world with one big throw.

What I see him doing is spreading the ball around and using the guys around and really relying on them and also doing what his coaches tell him. That sounds simple, right? But this is your first time, it's not their first rodeo. So listening to what the coaches tell you, being uber prepared, all of that has jumped out at me. Of course, the Niners have the advantage with that hard hitting, ferocious defense, stingy smothering, you want to talk about frustrating, they can certainly frustrate most offenses that they see. But you got to step on the field and do it.

On paper, stats, history, especially in division rivalries means a whole lot of nothing. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Thanks for joining us. We are about to put to bed the Tailgate Thursday portion of the show. We just have one U.S. time zone that is still in Thursday. So we started out with a Tailgate Thursday, maybe some of you thirsty as well on your Tailgate Thursday and now morphing forward into what is... You know, I have so many different F words.

Not that one. A ferocious, fantastic, frenetic, freaky football Friday. And why is it freaky? Well, it's also Friday the 13th.

I actually didn't realize that until I heard it on the news driving in. Sometimes I can't keep the day straight. Forget about the date.

That is lost to me. There are times when I'm not where I'm supposed to be or I forget. I wake up one day and oh my gosh, what's the date? Shoot, I have something today. So the overnights tend to purge me of my knowledge and my cognizant of the date.

But I now know it's a Friday the 13th. So we are all in as we prep for the football. You can take our polls. We've got two up because we can't put all the games in one poll. We're asking you the AFC game of the week and the NFC game of the week. And at this point, I think a lot of what we're seeing in the AFC poll results revolves around what we know about two of the wildcards in the AFC.

No Tua Tagovailoa. In fact, we might not see Teddy Bridgewater either. Could be Skylar Thompson.

And I kind of go back and forth. Skylar may be even better for the Dolphins. I'm not sure. It seems like Teddy Bridgewater turned the ball over a bunch and also I'm not sure he's 100%. Skylar, the offense with Skylar, they haven't moved the ball much either. It's been relatively anemic compared to what they were doing with Tua. And that late five game losing skid is definitely, it definitely sticks with you.

It's definitely recent. And so their only game in the last six was against the Jets in which no touchdowns were scored. So I can understand why people are shying away from Dolphins bills.

The last we knew it had the largest spread of any game this weekend. And then you think about the Ravens too. And what we saw from Lamar Jackson on Twitter, it does appear as though he's saying I'm not going to be able to play this weekend.

Obviously tough for him. So we'll talk more about the Ravens and how they kind of get around that or how they can approach this task, this much larger mountain to climb against the Bengals. All that to say right away, off the top, most of you are in the corner of Chargers, Jaguars as your AFC game of the week.

And then NFC game has got its own poll. So check those out again on Twitter. Our show account is After HoursCBS. Also on our Facebook page.

We're going in order if that's alright with you. So we previewed Seahawks and Niners last hour just before the top. And now we'll dive in with the second consecutive week for the Jacksonville Jaguars under the lights Saturday night hosting a game. A four man rush. He dropped a throw to Jags Presserin.

He fires to the right side. Caught by Haskins. He's tackled well short. A first down yardage. They're going to tackle him at the 44 yard line. And the ball's going to go over on down to Jacksonville. How about this defense?

How good is that? Herbert fakes the handoff to Kelly. Rolls to his right.

All kinds of green in front. Throws to the end zone. Caught. Touchdown Chargers. Mike Williams ten yards from Herbert for the 18th time in their careers.

On both the Jaguars and Chargers radio networks. Frank Frangie for Jacksonville and Matt Smith for the Chargers. This is kind of fun to think about Trevor Lawrence and Justin Herbert both making their playoff debuts. Neither one has tasted the playoffs before and they will do it together on the same field coming up on Saturday night. And the Jaguars have, I don't want to say it's completely unique because there are other teams in the playoffs that started out with losing records and started out very slowly. The Jaguars were 3-7 and there were 4 games behind the Titans in the AFC South in late November. But they got a couple confidence building wins out of their belts.

Close wins. Games in which they rallied like the game against the Dallas Cowboys. And so because of the credibility, because he clearly has the ear of the locker room, Doug Peterson has brought a different element to this team. He is back in the playoffs now for the first time since he was with the Eagles.

But he doesn't want to talk about himself. I'm excited for the team. Take me out of it. I'm excited for the guys. They've worked really hard to put themselves in this position. And where they've come from just says a lot to the leadership of the group.

So I'm happy for them. It's definitely a team effort. Usually the head coach and quarterback get the praise and the blame.

Hopefully we get the praise. He's been a great influence on the team as a whole but certainly on Trevor Lawrence who was completing 66% of his passes by the end of the year. Over 4,100 yards. But to me the critical element, the biggest improvement has been the few interceptions that he's thrown. Only 8 this season. Remember last year he threw, my goodness, it felt like he threw 8 in a month. He was racking them up all the time. So he's more than doubled his touchdown passes from his rookie year. So he had 25 in the regular season and he cut his interceptions by more than half.

That is not only a tribute to his work ethic and the people around him. So they brought in some weapons to put around him. Travis Etienne was hurt last year. Remember they traded for Christian Kirk to almost the disbelief of the rest of the NFL. Christian, was he not the first wide receiver to get the big contract that kind of set that market in motion? But Doug Peterson, because he speaks the language, because he's also a quarterback and because the Jaguars have had to play for their postseason lives, this is something they've been doing now.

This kind of pressure, this tension, the intensity, recognizing they could not stumble. They had very little margin for error. That puts them in playoff mode and gives them some experience where maybe Trevor Lawrence and some of the others don't have the actual games in the postseason. That was a playoff game last week. I mean, you look at how everything ended up playing out. If we don't win, if we didn't win that game, we're not sitting here today.

You know, everybody's packing up, going home. So, I mean, that was a playoff game for us. So it's the same mindset this week.

It's just official now. It's the first round of the playoffs. But I mean, for us, that was kind of like the first round of the playoffs because we knew we had to win to get in. So, I mean, I think that helps us kind of prepare for this week and the sense of urgency and, you know, the whatever you want to call it, the hype around the game, all that, especially now that there's less than half the teams playing this weekend. I think what's been so unique about our season for our team is that we have been in those kind of mandatory must-win situations and it's prepared us for this moment.

You got to have a healthy respect for your opponents when you come in, man. Even, you know, when we played the Jets, when we played the Titans, we knew that those teams were good. This is the NFL. And, you know, the Chargers are no different in that fashion. They're a well-established team.

They create takeaways. They get after the quarterback. They rally well. They got guys in the back end who have great ball skills. So, it's going to be a challenge, a unique challenge. I'm glad we're playing at home. It's awesome to have our home base here with us and supporting us.

And I look forward to the matchup, man, because this is what you want as a competitor. Yeah, think about where the Jaguars were a year ago. They had fired Urban Meyer. They were a mess. Trevor Lawrence was coming off the worst season of his entire football career, even though he was a rookie. But he was big man on campus to people questioning whether or not he could survive in the NFL. A whole slew of coaches got fired. But they bring in Doug Peterson. They make some moves.

And, wow, the culture and the winning mentality. And now here they are talking about the pressure of the playoffs. That's Zay Jones echoing what Trevor Lawrence had to say about, hey, we've been facing this now for quite a while. 823 yards for Zay. Five touchdowns.

They also have options. And the way that Travis Etienne has been running the ball lately is huge. Behind the offensive line, also a major improvement.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. As for the Chargers, yeah, it's their first game too. They were a 10-7 team this season coming out of the AFC West. And I feel like they also got to a point in the middle of the season where they started to find their footing. They had some of those moments that were, oh, typical Chargers earlier in the year.

But then they finished up really strong. And as much as a lot of times it's important that you look at the schedule and who they were playing late, I do think that in this case, because of the division that they're in and those games not being pushovers, and because of where some of these games were. Okay, so they lose to the Chiefs by three points.

That was the game that was in LA. And then from that point on, at Arizona where they win by a point. Okay, you can make all the jokes you want about the Cardinals. I totally get it. But the fact is, to win by a point on the road when you're a team that's learning how to win and building a culture and trying to pursue playoffs, that's a big deal.

It can build your confidence. Now then they go to Vegas and lose by a touchdown. But they turn around and they play against two teams at home that were also in the playoff race. They beat the Dolphins by six. They beat the Titans by three.

Part of what I want you to know as I'm sharing these margins with you is that they were in tight games themselves. They weren't necessarily blowing teams out. They did against the Colts. They did against the Rams.

I'm sure that felt great. But a lot of times, from the Chiefs to the Cardinals to the Raiders to the Dolphins to the Titans, those are all one score games. That also builds your confidence. It also builds kind of your mental toughness in games and situations where you have to have those reps.

There's no shortcut to experience in those situations. And so Brandon Staley, who will be making his playoff debut as well, this is a mindset that they've been living with for a couple months now. You treat every week like it has a life of its own in the NFL. Every week demands that full respect from you as a competitor. That's the way I've always tried to live. They're all the most important games in the world to me.

I think that's the only way that I've ever known how to compete. That's what I've tried to bring to this team. But what happens in the playoffs is every play, every possession is magnified. You have a ton of film.

You have 17 games worth of film for someone to watch. It's extremely well-scouted. I think that intensity, that attention to detail and the quality of the players makes for every play, every possession counting at a high level. There's got to be nerves for coaches, too. And I'm not saying it's bad. It's a nervous energy that you hope helps them to perform even better, heightens your sense of awareness, and you want them to take it all in.

It's interesting, too, something I was thinking about. Both of the five seeds in the AFC, it's the Chargers. In the NFC, it's the Cowboys. Both of the five seeds in this year's playoffs have better records than the four seeds, because the four seeds come from the south. Now the Jacksonville Jaguars finished above.500, which we can't say about the Buccaneers, but in both cases, the road teams are going into hostile territory. They have to play against all the enemy and evil fans.

However, they're the teams that should be, you would think, theoretically, dealing from a position of strength. So for Justin Herbert, not only is it his playoff debut, but they're going to have a raucous fan base, Jacksonville. They're psyched to have a playoff game at home. We've been able to work our silent count for most of the year. We've been pretty comfortable with that.

It's always a great opportunity and challenge of going into a place like that. We've got so much respect for their football team, for their fan base. We know it's going to be loud, and we've got to do everything we can to have that mentality of being prepared for that.

Similar to the Chargers, or similar to the Jaguars, excuse me, the Chargers are also in a situation where the playoff appearances have been sparse, shall we say. There are a few veterans on the team, though, and they have to be offering kind of that calm and whatever it is that they can say in the way of, hey, this is what you should expect. Keenen Allen knows his quarterback is making his playoff debut. He's a great competitor.

He's a great player, and he's our leader. I think he'll be fine. He'll do just fine.

He's a composed guy, too, so shouldn't be too big on him. This is going to be a lot of fun. Even if it wasn't an AFC that could potentially feature two third string quarterbacks making starts this weekend, there should be a ton of attention on this game anyway. Because of the bright futures of these two teams, you've got a bunch of young guys who are tasting it for the first time.

Now, there's one big question mark. Cynthia Freeland brought it up last hour when she joined us from NFL Network. What about Mike Williams?

And here's what Brandon Staley gave us. He's progressing, getting treatment, and just trying to get him as much rest as possible for Saturday. And, you know, we're hoping that he can make it to the game. Just trying to get him as much rest as possible because of the short, you know, time frame of the week or at that point of the season where the reps aren't what matter, the rest is, you know, in his case. So just trying to get him as much rest up until game time. So you guys have more doubt pregame to see, or how will that decision be made?

Yeah, I'm sure that that will be the case. So Mike Williams dealing with some back pain, maybe a bulky back. There was talk about whether or not he should have been out there in the late stages for the Chargers in week 18 because they had nothing on the line in that game.

Brandon Staley defended that decision even though there were a couple of guys that had to be helped off the field. It's a little scary. This is also a rematch, though not what you would think about with, say, division games like Seahawks and Niners.

But here's something to keep in mind. The Jaguars, they want to play the ball control game if they can. Now, it's different, right, because they had James Robinson earlier in the season.

Now they've got Travis Etienne. But they did run for 150 yards and held the ball for, are you ready, more than 38 minutes. So they had a plus, almost plus nine minutes in the time of possession category. You know what that does? It keeps Justin Herbert off the field.

So can they do that again, right? Can they somehow keep the ball away from the Chargers and what is an explosive offense? A gangster quarterback.

And the gangster quarterback, exactly. This game is tantalizing. I'm really excited. And how about the Jaguars getting to host a second straight game on a Saturday night under the lights?

That's super cool as well. Alright, we're working our way through a wild card weekend preview going game by game. Love to hear from you. A lot of you weighing in with our poll on Twitter, ALawRadio, but also, and on Facebook too. Many of you are still responding to the high point and the low point for your team in 2022. So I want to share some of those responses because I think some of them have been insightful and we're getting them from all over the league. Plus Sean Payton doing a radio show, a national radio show on Thursday and he was asked the question of how he would fix Russell Wilson. Well, that might be jumping the gun a little, though he is scheduled to have an interview with the Denver Broncos coming up next week.

A lot of teams interested in potentially luring him away from the New Orleans Saints. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. The NFL playoffs live on Odyssey. Touchdown as time expires.

Unbelievable turn of events. Nonstop coverage from the biggest sports radio stations in the country. Podcasts dedicated to each NFL team. And post-season games streaming live for free.

Thinks the handoff, looks right, throws right, hands on clock, touchdown. Your playoffs, your Odyssey. Get in the game and download the free Odyssey app today. The listening you love is on the free Odyssey app. Your trusted local radio stations. Coverage of your favorite teams. Live news from your hometown.

And millions of podcasts on demand. Best of all, you can completely customize your listening experience. Follow topics you care about, like leagues and teams. Pause or rewind your local sports and news.

And add shows to your queue to catch up later. There's a lot to listen to, so get started and download the free Odyssey app today. The listening you love is on the free Odyssey app. Your trusted local radio stations. Coverage of your favorite teams. Live news from your hometown. And millions of podcasts on demand.

Best of all, you can completely customize your listening experience. Follow topics you care about, like leagues and teams. Pause or rewind your local sports and news. And add shows to your queue to catch up later.

There's a lot to listen to, so get started and download the free Odyssey app today. Denver's been in third and long most of the night and unsuccessfully so. Eight times, ten yards or longer on third down. The ball's thrown and this is going to be intercepted inside the five yard line. Wilson was trying to throw the ball away as he was being hit and threw it right to a defender. Out of the 35 to 40 and that was just a really bad decision. The bottom line is that I let it down. It can't happen and it's been disappointing.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. That's Russell Wilson and man, it was not a season that Denver Broncos, Brass, the new owners, the coaches. Gosh, the head coach being fired already. Definitely not the season that the team or the fan base expected.

I just go back to the beginning of the year. Well, back to the beginning of this season with training camp and all of the energy and electricity and guys were bubbling. They're bursting with excitement over Russell Wilson being the missing piece. They were just a quarterback away. Well, I think it's fair to say they were not just a quarterback away and now I don't know if they're starting completely at scratch. They've got some real good pieces. But at the same time, this had to be the biggest disaster among the seven of their non-playoff seasons going back to Super Bowl 50 because of all the expectation. That's why. It's worse when they bring in a quarterback and pay him the money they did and still get absolutely nothing out of it.

When you are set up with great expectations, the fall is a lot harder and a lot more painful. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Russell Wilson's not going anywhere. They're trying to bring in a new coach, one that's got credibility but also has offensive acumen. Sean Payton is going to interview with them next week. Of course, he is the object of desire for many teams right now.

Who knows if it's the Broncos that have the most to offer. He was a guest on the Colin Cowherd show and he was asked about fixing Russell Wilson. How would you do it? You correct flaws immediately and then we don't worry about how long the process is going to take. In other words, I'd want to cut up today. I'd want to cut up of all Russell's past plays of 30 or more yards from the field. I'd want to see if there are some schemes that he felt very comfortable with. I know that they did a great job in Seattle of bringing him off of a naked boot and then pulling up. We all saw that throwback to lock it across the field where the ball traveled 60 yards in the air. Then I'd want to look at another film of his red zone touchdown passes inside the 20. What I'm asking for from assistants is I'm asking for some of his greatest hits and to make sure that we have those song lyrics available.

If not, let's put them in. He is technically still property of the New Orleans Saints. It's interesting to hear a coach, he's not active obviously, but for the most part coaches are not supposed to be speaking about players from other teams. That's kind of against the NFL rules unless you're talking about matchups. Definitely front offices are not supposed to be doing it.

That's considered tampering when you're talking about someone else's player. That's why you'll hear a lot of these front offices, GM types talk about the player as opposed to naming him. But because Sean Payton is not active, maybe it's a different thing. That was Sean with Colin Cowherd already has a plan for where he would start to try to fix quote unquote Russell Wilson.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. I was just talking to Cynthia Freeland last hour and mentioned this to her, but at 27 years old Patrick Mahomes is the oldest starting quarterback in the AFC this weekend. But do you know that Trevor Lawrence is the youngest in the playoffs at 23, though I was thinking about that. I read that stat and I thought there's no way that's true.

How can that be true? Scottler Thompson's a rookie. Anthony Brown may or may not star for the Ravens. He's a rookie. Brock Purdy is a rookie. Now you can be older. You could have played your entire four seasons in college and then not come out early. Or you could have redshirted years. I've been Googling it trying to find a list, trying to find the ages of the NFL quarterbacks altogether. Because I right now while I'm sitting here can't go and look at them all individually. But yeah, Trevor Lawrence, 23 years old, according to the story I read, is the youngest quarterback to start this weekend.

So then think about it. In the AFC specifically you're talking about a lot of guys who don't necessarily have playoff experience and will be going into this for the first time. But you also have some unique and less than optimal situations with teams that could be starting backups and in some cases. I just think it's unheard of that we could have three playoff teams starting what are essentially third string quarterbacks. You may not call Brock Purdy that anymore, but third string quarterback he is.

That's where he started the season. So yeah, it just means these playoffs you kind of have to expect the unexpected. I hope we don't have massive spreads. I hope there aren't games that are boring, quote unquote, or that people would call unwatchable. Because I want, not only do I want the best competition, but I want that these teams that earned their way into the playoffs would also put their best foot forward. Regardless, even if they lose, it's an opportunity to take a step forward, right? Especially for teams that are building, like the Jacksonville Jaguars, like the Chargers. And I don't mean rebuilding, I just mean building a winning culture.

And so this is important even if they fail and fall flat on their faces. But I also know we love this time of the year and we love the games that keep us hanging. Mouths dropped open, good to the last drop, like the 2021 playoffs. So, on Twitter you can vote for the top game in the AFC, the top game in the NFC. We actually let you pick the after hours games of the week, so check those out. They're both on Twitter, in fact they're stacked back to back if you want to go to my Twitter page, ALawRadio. And then also on our Facebook page, some people aren't reading, they're just posting whichever games they want regardless of conference. You know how I feel about you following the rules.

Our phone number too is 855-212-4227, that's 855-212-4CBS. We're continuing our playoff preview next game up, would be of course the Dolphins and the Bills. And for the Buffalo Bills, man this represents the start of another opportunity for them. They've had some heartache, some heartbreak, and not just the four lost Super Bowls in a row.

I mean more recently, I mean 13 seconds last year, I mean the AFC Championship the year before. And man, think about the adversity and really the pain and the loss that they've suffered this year in their Bills family. The snow that they've had there and the number of people in Western New York and that area that lost their lives because of the crazy blizzards. It's been a tough year in that part of Western New York and the Bills are the hope for that area in many cases. I've lived in Western New York, I worked in Rochester, that was my first commercial job. And I also was the engineer slash producer for Buffalo Bills football when I worked for my first station WHAM 1180.

It's a blowtorch in Rochester. I know what Bills football means to them. I know mafia is the term we throw around, but it's a lifeblood. It's almost like a college football campus with the way that they live and die with their team. And they've had some low points. They've had some high points, but they've had some low points. And so Bills and Dolphins are up next and man I'm anxious to see what the Bills do to start out.

Especially given what's happened with them the last two weeks. On Twitter, on Facebook, glad to connect with you. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. You are listening to the After... The NFL playoffs live on Odyssey. Touchdown as time expires.

Unbelievable turn of events. Nonstop coverage from the biggest sports radio stations in the country. Podcasts dedicated to each NFL team. And post-season games streaming live for free.

Thinks the handoff, looks right, throws right, hands on clock, touchdown. Your playoffs, your Odyssey. Get in the game and download the free Odyssey app today. The NFL playoffs live on Odyssey. Touchdown as time expires.

Unbelievable turn of events. Nonstop coverage from the biggest sports radio stations in the country. Podcasts dedicated to each NFL team. And post-season games streaming live for free.

Thinks the handoff, looks right, throws right, hands on clock, touchdown. Your playoffs, your Odyssey. Get in the game and download the free Odyssey app today. The listening you love is on the free Odyssey app. Your trusted local radio stations. Coverage of your favorite teams. Live news from your hometown. And millions of podcasts on demand. Best of all, you can completely customize your listening experience. Follow topics you care about.

Like leagues and teams. Pause or rewind your local sports and news. And add shows to your queue to catch up later. There's a lot to listen to.

So get started and download the free Odyssey app today. Four hours podcast. 23 seconds on the clock. A win here in a Bill's Law. A Bill's win would give it off to playoffs.

It's up and it is good! Wow. Biggest kick of the year for Jason Sanders. And he comes through. With 18 seconds left. The Dolphins lead it 9 to 6. What a big kick for Jason Sanders. Wow.

Temperatures around 35 degrees here this afternoon. As Folt puts his foot into the ball. It's going to be short. Fielded at the 4 by Hines. Coming straight up the middle to the 20. Cuts it back at the 25. He's got an alley down the right sideline to the 40. 50, down to the 40.

35, 30, 20, 15, 10, 5. Touchdown, Naheem Hines. 96 yards. Run, run as fast as you can. You're not catching Hines. He's your end zone man.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Before I say anything else, that may have been the most emotional moment and the most electric moment of the entire NFL season. And I know there have been many. We saw the Vikings rally from 33-0 for heaven's sakes.

Was that Christmas Day or Christmas Eve? We've seen some awesome individual feats of strength. Patrick Mahomes, every time he steps on the field, seems like he's got a shot put or a shovel pass or some elusive escape from danger. And he set a record for most total yards from scrimmage this year. So there are some awesome highlight reels, some incredible moments that we'll never forget. But Naheem Hines taking the opening kickoff. 96 yards on the field at home, in the game after the Bills lose DeMar Hamlin to a cardiac arrest on the field and they worry about him for days. And then him being part of their locker room and FaceTiming beforehand and what a lift it was to be back in front of Bills Mafia. Man, I still have chills hearing it.

I had tears watching it. I know the Patriots got caught in the crossfire there. I mean, they were... They had an opportunity.

Ultimately, it felt like they were climbing a mountain against 85,000 people or what sounded like 100,000 people. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio, Dolphins Radio and then Bills Radio with Chris Brown actually filling in for John Murphy. And if you are a member of Bills Mafia or if you are in Western New York or maybe you just heard the information, I haven't.

If someone out there knows how John Murphy is doing and whether or not he's going to be part of the playoff broadcast this weekend, please let me know on Twitter, ALawRadio or on our Facebook page. Yeah, for Josh Allen, there's a lot of playoff experience there. You're not talking about a guy here who... Well, a guy on a team who don't know what they're in for. But it doesn't make it any easier, right? Because you go in, everybody's on equal footing. It's one week season from here on out.

It's winter go home. We understand that. At the end of the day, you know, come Sunday, it's the only thing that matters is scoring more points than the other team.

So, you know, trying to have a good week of practice, putting our best foot forward, making sure that we're holding ourselves to our own standard, you know, and obviously taking it day by day, but, you know, everything that we're doing is in hopes to win on Sunday. Now these two teams have already faced off twice, similar to Seahawks and Niners, but dissimilar to that NFC West rivalry. They split during the year, and I wrote it down. Where did I write it down? Here we go.

So that I wouldn't have to look it up again. In week three, the Dolphins beat the Bills, so that goes back to September, and they beat them 21 to 19, so a much lower scoring affair. You don't want to get into a shootout with the Bills and Josh Allen, Stephon Diggs.

They've got many different ways that they can hurt you. I'll just mention that one very productive connection in the NFL, but then the Dolphins lost by three in mid-December, so how about that? They're two games separated by a total of five points.

It bodes well. Now in mid-December, they lost by three, and I know at the time we were seeing the Dolphins go through that five-game losing skit, and that's actually become a point of emphasis for head coach Mike McDaniel. I told them today that I think they're one of five teams in the history of the National Football League that have lost five in a row and made the playoffs, and that is not something that you're like, you won on a trophy. You'd prefer not to lose five in a row, but I think it also more precisely speaks to the level of determination, the lack of splintering.

There's something to be proud of there, too, because that is hard to do, clearly. Yes, into every season a little rain must fall, but want to hear something nutso? The Jaguars also lost five in a row this season, and they are in the playoffs, and had the Packers won, actually the Packers or the Lions, had either of those teams got into the playoffs, they would have been a piece of history, that footnote to history, so how about that? We don't, but we could have had three teams in the playoffs that had five-game losing streaks, which would be nearly as many as we've seen in the NFL's entire history. Whoa, it's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio, so talk about a tale of two quarterbacks. This is completely different for the Dolphins going in without Tua versus where the Bills are dealing from a position of strength, but Sean McDermott will not take Miami lightly. They're a good team. They're very talented. I believe they're well coached. They've got really good speed on their football team. I know a lot gets talked about with 10 and 17, with Hill and Waddle, but their speed extends beyond just those two guys, so I think defensively they do a great job of giving you different looks and things of that nature, and then special teams.

They've got a really good special teams unit, and it's well coached. If you go on a date and with somebody three times, you should know that she or he, whoever you're with, likes a lemon drop or a Shirley Temple, but that's what you should know, so I kind of look at it for what it is. I don't make it like all these giant things, like we're going on our third date.

Hopefully we can take them home. When Deion Dawkins was giving me the line about the date the third time, I was kind of with him. I was following him. I was going along with it, and then he got to the point about we want to take them home, and I thought, no, that's not really what you want to do, so at that point I think he's just being a goofball, which is funny, but it doesn't really fit. You know me, though. I'm big on dating and marriage analogies when it comes to sports, so I was with him.

I was following along, and then he lost me. Naeem Hines, he was traded to the Bills mid-season. I don't think I can overstate it by saying that he's made a huge impact, and he feels like he's home himself, and man, that moment last weekend. Every day since I've been here, Sean and Brandon talk to me and ask me how I am, and I just tell them I'm thankful to be here, and I really mean that I'm happy to be here. Transitioning in the middle of the season is not the easiest, but since I've been here, Brandon, Sean, and all the guys have made it really, really easy for me, so I'm super excited just to be able to show the Bills and Bills mafia how thankful I truly am to be here, and a lot of people say that, but I really don't take those words for granted.

The competition here has been tough, and it's been hard throughout the middle of the year, but I've had great support, and I'm just thankful to be that person to give that spark plug for a community who's been through so much. Love that about Naeem Hines, and I love the way the team has treated him. Like the Niners, there are so many ways the Bills can hurt you. It starts with Josh Allen. So for Xavian Howard, the cornerback, for Josh Boyer, the defensive coordinator, this is the challenge. Let's let the game slash interrupt Josh Allen's rhythm.

The Buffalo is a high-power offense. You know, he's got a lot of weapons everywhere. He can do everything, man. This is the third time we're facing him this year. You know, there's a lot of stuff on the table he can do, so we just got to stop him, try to contain him and just get some takeaways from him and stuff like that. You know, every time we play him, the game's been close up, so I feel like we've been doing an okay job against him, and I'm sure they're going to come with some different game plans and different stuff they're going to do, and we just got to try to stop and contain him. When you have the opportunities to tackle him, and I think the more people you can get around him, the better off you're going to be, and you try to cage him up and not give him open space. I think he's proven time and time again if you give him open space, he can make plays, and we know he's going to make some plays.

He has in every game that he's played in. We're just going to have to try to limit those the best we can, and then when we have opportunities to make plays, we need to do that. It's no easy feat, and it's even tougher when you're asking your defense. Now, potentially, I don't know that this is going to happen, but if we don't see the Dolphins hold onto the ball longer, put together extended drives with Skylar Thompson, because it appears that they'll be starting the rookie Skylar, who's made appearances in seven games, but if you can't hold onto the ball and put together extended drives, two things happen. Number one, you're giving way more opportunities and snaps to Josh Allen and to the Bills, and that's a sure way to just play with fire. We're talking about here because of the number of points that they put up, but also the Dolphins' defense will wear down so much more quickly, and they cannot afford that. So I hope that the Dolphins are able to run the ball. I think that's really critical, and once again, similar to what I said last hour, in the rain in San Francisco, they cannot turn the ball over.

The Dolphins cannot turn the ball over. It's after hours, CBS Sports Radio. The NFL playoffs live on Odyssey. Touchdown as time expires.

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