After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCASR: Hour 1

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. I'm Larry Mullins, host of the podcast, Your Weirdest Fears, the show that explores the odd things that make your heart stop. I am so scared of the Grinch. He is bad vibes. We talk to everyone from therapists to exterminators to lizard man.

I was 25 when I actually got my tongue split. I have one tattoo that covers my entire body. Listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts from. And I see over on the right side in the column that Damar Hamlin is trending. So, like a dummy, I click on it. Now, I'm thinking it has to be legit because there are more than 28,000 tweets. 28,000! That seems to me like an exorbitant number if there's nothing going on. You know how a couple of nights ago, remember I was talking to you all here and Bob Barker was trending on Twitter? Except it wasn't like a bazillion tweets.

And at first I thought, oh no, maybe he's passed away because he's in his late 90s. Then, opening it up, realizing there's a reason why not everyone on Twitter is commenting about Bob Barker because he's okay. So, typically you can judge by the number of tweets. For instance, Dak Prescott was trending like nobody's business on Sunday night.

Mike McCarthy was trending on Sunday night. Right now, Half Moon Bay is trending. And if you know what happened in California, there was another shooting. There have been two, actually, mass shootings in the state of California.

One, Southern California and now Half Moon Bay. You can understand why that is trending. And so thinking of those people and the, gosh, the attempts to unravel and figure out what happened in these two incidents.

Knowing that 17 people, at least at this point, are confirmed dead. That's a reason. You can understand why that is something that people are talking about. So I assumed, incorrectly, that DeMar Hamlin, with the number of tweets, it had to be something legitimate. Huh.

So I clicked on it and I wish I had not. Do you want to know why DeMar Hamlin is trending? Again, keeping in mind, 28,000 tweets. That's a lot of tweets for a conspiracy theory. Do you know there are, and I don't know which Twitter account started this, but there are many blue check marks out there that are tweeting about it. The challenge these days is anybody can buy a blue check mark. So you have to be careful who you see as verified. It used to be that verified equated with legitimate, equated with truth, equated with authentic, but that's not the case anymore. Now anyone can verify a Twitter handle simply by paying $8 a month, which, by the way, we're still not doing. And so every time I log into Twitter, I expect the blue check mark to disappear. So back to DeMar.

I open it up and I realize there are a lot of people with blue check marks and some people with a ton of followers. So enough that they can disseminate a conspiracy theory that the NFL trotted out a body double for DeMar Hamlin in Orchard Park. That it wasn't actually DeMar, that his parents were there, his little brother was there.

But DeMar, who had a mask on, that seems to me like an obvious step. The man requires oxygen each day. He definitely can't be getting sick.

His lungs can't afford to have any type of illness. And you're in a crowd of, I don't know how many thousands, tens of thousands of people you're coming across. Even though you're in a suite, you're still walking hallways, you're still in, well, I don't know if that one was open air, but a lot of times these suites have open air. Just, there's a lot of stuff traveling.

But even so, you can't avoid all contact. So it makes a lot of sense to me that he would be wearing a mask. He's immunocompromised.

He's compromised. So he's wearing a mask and he's wearing a hoodie, which I don't know, I would say probably 80% of 20-year-olds wear hoodies with the hood up all the time. And they show him on camera because it's snowing really hard in Orchard Park yesterday. The camera from across the stadium, which is eye level with the suites, it shows a grainy video. You obviously can't see his face behind the mask and with the hood. Though, in case you're interested, there are actual photos and videos out there from his side. Right, from a different angle. That's a much closer angle. It's actually inside the suite. So it's either someone else's video camera footage or there was a camera there. I'm not exactly sure, but there is a radio host out there who shared a photo from his left side where he's cheering.

I shouldn't say photo, sorry, video. And so there are people out there saying that the NFL is using DeMar Hamlin as a prop. And that the photo, in fact, I'm seeing it right now on TV, just saw the video of him encouraging the team, that the photos and the video are not actually DeMar.

I just want you to keep in mind one thing, and that's completely disgusting, right? That conspiracy theory is disgusting. If that ever, I don't believe it, just want to clarify, I do not believe it. That was definitely DeMar Hamlin. But even, let's just say for the sake of argument that the NFL did something like that. The bills, there's no way, there's just no way the bills would do that.

Absolutely not. It's not as though the NFL could trot a fake DeMar Hamlin into Orchard Park, into the stadium at Highmark, and that the bills would go along with it. Do you know how painful that would be for them? These teammates who nearly lost DeMar Hamlin, they would never go along with it. So that's how you know it was not a body double.

That's how you know that TV was not duped into believing this was DeMar Hamlin. Not to mention, the dummies out there who believe this is true, are you forgetting that he was in a golf cart driving underneath the stadium? There are people who saw him, and his family, and his little brother. You think his little brother is going to go along with a conspiracy theory? His brother is seven.

He doesn't even know what a conspiracy theory is. And let's just say all of that, and somehow you get dozens and dozens of people to go along with it, including the entire Buffalo Bills roster, which again is ridiculous. Josh Allen, Dane Jackson, who's a childhood friend of his, as well as his college teammate. There are guys who would never go along with something that despicable to trot him out like it's some kind of a prop to give them a boost in a football game, right?

After they canceled a football game over concern for his health. I mean, think about how little that makes sense, that the Bills would go along with this. They wouldn't. But even so, there are people who saw him, and so it's obvious that it was him. And I also want to remind you, people can't keep secrets.

You know that, right? The number of people who would have had to be in on the conspiracy, there's no way. Dozens and dozens of people, security guards. How about the people who are working the suites?

The league offices, the Buffalo Bills themselves. I'm just trying to ask you to use common sense. Anybody who believes it actually wasn't Tamar Hamlin, think about the number of people who would have had to be in on the ruse.

No. That many people can't keep a secret. Why? Because they want to be the ones who break the news on social. Everybody wants to go viral and break the news on social. You got a secret?

It's burning a hole in your social media account until you share it. People can't keep secrets like that. Anyway, the whole thing is, I would say it's unbelievable, but it's social media, so of course it's not.

People can be awful. That's not a surprise. The fact that there are so many people out there who believe that the NFL and the Bills and all the people who saw this family would keep the secret is ridiculous. What does a security guard have to gain by not outing anyone who would try that? He or she would be a hero by sharing that information.

And yes, I'm using the word with my air quotations tongue in cheek. So please do not believe that conspiracy theory and really be careful what you click on when it comes to trends on social media. The Bills had him in the locker room pregame, halftime, postgame. Just as a side note, there are actual photos of DeMar with his teammates that were shared by his teammates on their own social media. Matt Milano provided a photo with DeMar Hamlin. So what, they had the actual DeMar in the stadium? And then they decided they would use a body double in the suite? I mean, come on.

How gullible do you have to be? There are different Buffalo Bills who spoke about DeMar Hamlin, right, including Josh Allen, who talked about him being in the locker room before the game. Just his presence is a warm feeling. And obviously we wanted to play for him and continue our mission. And again, we just ran into a team that played better than us tonight. We'll hear more from Josh coming up because Josh had a lot to say as part of the Bills exit interviews, but just to squash that despicable and really stupid conspiracy theory that is gaining so much traction among people who A, likely know nothing about the NFL.

B, clearly know nothing about the Buffalo Bills or their leadership. 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. I'm Larry Mullins, host of the podcast, Your Weirdest Fears, the show that explores the odd things that make your heart stop. I am so scared of the Grinch. He is bad vibes. We talk to everyone from therapists to exterminators to lizard man. I was 25 when I actually got my tongue split. I have one tattoo that covers my entire body.

Listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts from. Imagine, just again, just to like underscore how ridiculous this is, could you imagine the NFL going to Sean McDermott and saying, hey, we'd like to put a body double of DeMar Hamlin in a suite. Do you mind? Would that be okay with you? If we show them on TV?

And not just on TV. How about the, I don't know how many people are in, were in Highmark Stadium, 78,000 people. How about we pretend to the 78,000 members of Bill's Mafia that DeMar Hamlin is in the stadium? Do you mind?

Is that okay with you? Come on, you've got to be kidding me. I just want to say right now, if you've been duped by this idea that DeMar Hamlin wasn't actually in the stadium, don't tell anyone that. Pretend like you didn't believe it for a second. I just want to say right now, if you've been duped by this idea that DeMar Hamlin wasn't actually in the stadium, don't tell anyone that. Pretend like you didn't believe it for a second.

Just think it through is all I'm telling you. There's no way Josh Allen would have gone along with it, his friends, his teammates. I dare say there are probably members of the Bengals who went to see him as well.

Remember it was the Bengals who were on the field. It was their field when he suffered his cardiac arrest. I haven't heard this, but I was hoping that he and T Higgins would have a moment together. I know that T saw him on the big screen, right? So we had T talking about that.

I don't know if they had a chance to meet after the game. I definitely saw it. I had a smile on my face. Just seeing that he was able to make it to the game, it was all good to see.

So that's T Higgins, who of course was the player that DeMar tackled in that fateful play where he then collapsed to the ground. Please you guys. If nothing else, I know we joke around here and there's a lot of stuff I say that's tongue in cheek and goofy. And I tell you to, you know, remember I generally talk about sports in an irreverent way. I also try to be intelligent. I try to give you an objective view of things. I try to make sure you're informed. But you don't even have to take my word for it.

Just think about it for a second. The various evidence I've given you to refute any suggestion that this was a body double. So I made the mistake of clicking on that photo.

I've had some warnings from other people who've responded saying, hey, don't look at this or don't look at that because you'll be even more disgusted. And I definitely will not. I did not intend to use that as my lead. And that's not going to be a major topic of conversation on this edition of the show. I may bring it up again, though, for those who are listening later in the show. If you don't know, we get a major turnover on the show based on our time slot or hours and people's listening habits. And so I'll probably bring it up a little bit later in the show when a lot of you are fast asleep, no longer listening.

But thank you for hanging out with us. You can find me on Twitter, A Law Radio. You know, one of the redeeming qualities of social media? Dogs. I actually made Jay go look at my social media, go look at my Twitter earlier when we're doing show prep. We got dogs, Jimmy. Yeah, that kind of dog. So it was an anniversary of sorts for me and my dog Penny on Monday. I will ask you to go ahead and check it out, because as much as I love my dog and can say all kinds of sweet things about her, a photo is way better. So check out the new photo I put up. Well, it's it's it's from a couple of months ago, but it is this year.

It's right around her 13th birthday. But yeah, I wasn't at the beach on Monday. So, oh, anyway, you can check it out. It's on Twitter, A Law Radio. I swear to you, I'm just about to post it on Facebook, but I need Jay's help for that. So we'll do it during this break. We are in the wake of the divisional round, still sifting through the rubble, if you will.

And that includes exit interviews. Josh Allen still clearly torn up about the loss to the Bengals. Dawson Knox.

Stefan Diggs weighs in on Twitter about his emotional outburst Sunday. We've got an update such as it is on Patrick Mahomes. And man, do I love the optimism coming from the Jaguars. So that's inside the AFC. In the NFC, we have not heard. The players, the Cowboys players yet, and I suspect that's because they had a late travel home, but we'll get their exit interviews likely on Tuesday or Wednesday.

We do have Mike McCarthy, though. That final play of the game, I still have no idea. I don't know what they were doing. Why was Ezekiel Elliott lined up at center? How did they convince him to go out there, snap the ball, knowing he was going to get trucked by a defensive lineman? I don't get it.

That, to me, would be a more plausible conspiracy theory. Mike McCarthy hates Ezekiel Elliott, so he wanted to get run over. Why isn't that trending on Twitter? I mean, how did he tell him, hey, it's going to be OK, just take one for the team? Did he have some kind of a clause in his contract that if he got tackled one time?

Oh, no, he got tackled a certain number of times that he would end up with a bonus and he needed one more tackle. Oh, my gosh, Jay, you have to find that final play just just because you got to tell people, because I suspect there are people who weren't still watching. Maybe had tuned out on a Sunday night. I'm not sure.

Maybe not a ton. That game, by the way, more than thirty four million viewers. It was tight and uncomfortable and obviously dominated by defense. We've got the latest on the Americans down under. And a bit of a triumphant return for a player who suffered a torn ACL in the bubble and has now finally gotten back on the court.

Oh, and the gang's back together in Milwaukee, though they're not in Milwaukee, they're in Detroit. So much to talk about. I have a couple of stories to tell you. So find me on Twitter. A law radio. If you haven't yet answered our question about the most impressive individual performance or team performance that you saw over the weekend, you can answer that question to our phone numbers. Eight, five, five, two, one, two, four, two, two, seven.

That's eight, five, five, two, one, two, four. CBS. Great to connect with you.

We're a full service operation around here. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. Portis takes it into the paint, drops a couple of defenders on it, passes out to Giannis. Giannis with four minutes to play in the court, going to squeeze up another three and he connects again. Man, that layoff may have been just what the doctor ordered for Giannis with 20 points now in this first quarter alone.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. It didn't take very long for the Bucks to bury the Pistons. Do you want to know why? Here's what you need to know. Here's really all you need to know about this game.

They'll probably give you more details. The Bucks put up forty nine points in the first quarter. In the first quarter, they put up forty nine points in Detroit. There was, you know, an offensive. Just everybody, I'm sure the basket looked big for them.

They start feeding off of each other and I think playing with the pass and just a good rhythm. And I think, you know, the defense was good. So I was just, you know, one of those quarters where, you know, kind of everything went well for us. Mike Budenholzer on the Milwaukee Bucks explosion right out of the gate.

And he, of course, has his superstar to thank for a lot of that. Giannis back in the lineup for the first time after five games and he had 20 points in the first quarter. I guess he was feeling good.

Lots of energy. He'd been out with a sore knee. And his buddy, his other half, Chris Middleton, those two both in the lineup together for the first time in more than a month. So the Bucks have been kind of hit or miss and they're still a very good team and they still have good players. But obviously that is your core duo. That's your championship duo along with Brook Lopez. They've got such a good, a good internal leadership right along with with Coach Bud. But to have those three together on the court means that you better be locked in from the opening tip or you're going to get buried like 49 points in the first quarter, which, by the way, is too shy of the NBA record. I like this team.

I like guys who've been together for a long time because you can see the relationships and how important the nonverbal communication, how important it is that they know each other and they work together well. Teamwork is why I fell in love with team sports, why I prefer them over individual sports. And so Giannis did say the band is back together. Now for Joe Ingles, it's his first time playing with Chris Middleton. So kind of think about some of the various iterations of the Bucks lineup that the coaching staff has had to use. Now they get not just a depth level where you have more guys that you can trust because they've logged more minutes, but you have your stars back on the court. So theoretically, that means that overall your entire team should be stronger. I realized I needed to get out of his way more and that all the players that were for me are now for him.

It's funny, it makes it so much easier again from what it already kind of was playing with this group. You saw it in the offseason and all that, the envision was playing with him and being on the court there with him. So for it to happen in January or whatever, mid-January, obviously wasn't what was expected, but it was good to have him out there. Now Joe is coming off a torn ACL, so there's another guy who is trying to get back into the flow of the lineup.

Giannis not gone nearly as long, Chris Middleton has been in and out. So you've got just a bunch of different rosters and rotations for the coaching staff. But how often do we see this work to a team's advantage?

It's not easy, but you've got different guys who fill different roles, they log more minutes, they get more experience, they're finding a comfort level playing with different teammates on the court. You could use the offensive line in football as an example. We know that there's no shortcut to cohesion and consistency with the offensive line.

You just have to take reps, you have to work together. But what do we see with the Bengals this weekend? Three starters out, and yet because the other three guys were ready to step in, because they've been working hard with this O-line throughout the course of the year, there was no drop. The O-line dominated the Bills in the trenches. And so the more reps for your backups, the more depth you have, the stronger your group becomes, your unit becomes. You're only as strong as your weakest link. So welcome back to Joe Ingalls, plays with Chris Middleton for the first time, that's kind of fun. Always good to see Giannis on the court.

He is worth the price of admission. And I'm a freaking champion. I mean, not yet. Let's not jump the gun. Are you predicting something?

Are you guaranteeing something? It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on, oh, just have a hiccup. I don't, I am the only adult I know who has hiccups, and I don't, I do not know why. Do you ever have hiccups, Marco? Yeah, no, I got them. Oh, okay. Do you ever get them while you're on the air? Because it seems to happen to me when I'm taking weird breathy, breaths on the air.

Not that I can remember. You just knock on your head. That doesn't work. You know that, right? Well. No. Can't hurt. Negative, Ghost Rider. I mean, you can't be that superstitious.

Can't hurt. You can't be that gullible, like all these people who believe that DeMar Hamlin wasn't actually at the game on Sunday and that it was a body double. Seriously. Like the, so apparently Marco did not know that, that that's trending on Twitter. 28,000 tweets. And so I clicked on it thinking we'd get a positive update on DeMar's health. I mean, there's that many people talking about it. Something good had to happen. Well, I guess I was hoping. Nah, it's 28,000 conspiracy theories about how it wasn't actually DeMar at the game.

Yeah, I mean, I'm just telling you, it's a cesspool out there. Okay, one more real quick while Marco's in here, we'll hit the other game because this is kind of a really neat story. Well, not so neat for the Boston Celtics, but welcome back to Jonathan Isaac after two and a half years and more than 900 days. Here's Isaac. Orlando looking for him and now he's got it. Straight away with Jaylen Brown on him, he'll roll into the lane, he's going to turn, fade and get it.

Welcome back, Mr. Isaac. That was pure. That was steal. He stepped in, knocked it away from Jaylen Brown.

Leading the break, he'll give it to Bancaro. A two-handed dunk and the roof's about to blow off of this place. Wendell with the rebound, gives to Markel and this is going to be a dub for Orlando.

A welcome back, J.I. dub for Orlando. A third and four tries against the Boston Celtics dub for Orlando. Wendell, the finishing touches.

The cherry on top. All right, forget for a second that it's this weird quirk, some type of ninth dimension where the Orlando Magic have the Celtics number. That in and of itself is strange. No disrespect to Orlando Magic, but that's one of the worst teams in the league. I forgot about that. That's because they lost, the Warriors lost to them last year too.

They're apparently giant killers. Anyways, so the Celtics who had, I don't know, another seven-game win streak or something like that, go on the road, they lose to Orlando. I know Jason Tatum is dealing with a side injury.

I mean, I don't technically call it a side, but it's the side of his body. And he and Jalen Brown had 26 each, but there wasn't a whole lot else. But the story in this game is Jonathan Isaac returning. He tore his ACL in the bubble. If I remember correctly, it was very early in the bubble. First or second day in the bubble and just couldn't have gone more horribly wrong for him.

So he returns on a minutes restrict. 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. 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. And he plays under 10 minutes, but he has 10 points for the magic. I thought he was great. I thought he did a great job playing with a level of poise. I think that was the importance of, you know, him getting the G-League time. Obviously there was a ton of emotions and rightfully so.

I thought he was great, the way he handled himself defensively, just his ability to get after the basketball, and then offensively just taking his time, not trying to rush many things. Honestly, just everything. You know, it's been such a long road, thinking about all that it's taken to get here. You know, the tough days, the good days, the bad days, the ups and downs. You know, all the people that were a part of getting me back, the training staff.

You know, we call them the purple people eaters. But our players coaches that worked with me tirelessly, Nate Tibbetts, all those guys. And then just, you know, my family, my church family, my faith that I have been fortunate enough to lean on during this entire time, I wouldn't be here. So just all of that, obviously the adrenaline, everything that's going on, and just trying my best to stay grounded and grateful. You know, much love to the Magic for sticking with me and the Magic fans were excited. So just trying to bottle all that up in one moment. It was surreal.

Welcome back to Jonathan Isaac. He did admit that he was pretty worn out though from those 10 minutes. So basketball shape, it's a little bit different than running on a treadmill.

I mean, there's a lot of work and different muscles that are involved and so he was winded. But baby steps, that's pretty cool. It actually made me think about this and it's really similar to life. I say a lot that sports are a microcosm of life. This ebb and flow and the fact that time never stops. And every day there are amazing victories and triumphs and human interest stories that make us smile or make us happy. But then there's the opposite, right?

There's tragedy, there's sadness. And even in the sports world, you have a guy who comes back from a torn ACL. After two and a half years, imagine the relief and the thrill for him to be back on the court.

The team waited, they stuck with him. I mean, I thought about Klay Thompson when Isaac was talking. But then you have the opposite, right? You have the thrill of victory and the thrill of the competition, but you have the agony of defeat. And you can hear that in the voice of Josh Allen, in Dawson Knox, in some of the guys who lost this weekend so painfully. And on that note, we will hear from Josh coming up next. But yeah, it's an ebb and flow. It really is such a contrast in sports all the time.

That's kind of something I was thinking about as I was listening to various athletes who were making headlines on Monday night. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on Twitter, ALawRadio, if you too would like to chime in on the DeMar Hamlin conspiracy theory. I cannot believe that there are those of you who actually believe this.

It's stunning to me, but I shouldn't be surprised. Marco keeps making faces at me. I know, but I'm getting people tweeting at me even now in real time who are suspicious. Why hasn't he done a public interview?

Never underestimate the stupidity of people. I mean, it's not enough that he shows up in the locker room with his teammates. Like, why does he owe the public anything? He doesn't. He's been tweeting, there are photos out there, his family was there.

You really think his seven-year-old little brother would have gone along with a ruse? Are you kidding me? Again, this is all just garbage. I know, it's garbage. I'm stupid.

Thank you. Get me some oxygen. I know, I agree with you, I agree with you. But we're going to turn to some more legit headlines. I've said my piece on it, so I feel like I was fairly controlled and presented, you know, the facts of the situation. I can't help it if people don't want to believe facts. I'm going to try to keep my mouth shut before I... Yeah, don't include that in your update because I feel like that might be a conflict of interest.

No, I'm not including that in my update. I'm not giving anything to that nonsense. All right, good. Let's change the subject.

We can do that. Thanks for listening to the After Hours podcast. Fourth down, shotgun. Allen, two receivers left. Allen, looking that way, waiting. Allen, patient, downfield, to the end zone, knocked away.

Eli Apple waving at Dikembe Mutombo. Here, Gabe Davis, the intended receiver, and the Bills hand it over on downs with 7.23 to go. Disappointment. You play to win. Our goal is to win a Super Bowl, a World Championship, and we didn't accomplish that. There was no real energy, juice, no momentum. Usually we'll get a stop, offense will score, or defense will make a turnover, something to bring some change in momentum. There was none of that this week.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Hearing Matt Milano say that in the wake of the Bills performance against the Bengals was really astounding to me. And yes, the Bengals deserve a ton of credit. But of all things that you would not expect from this team full of veterans, it's that the Bills would be flat, and they wouldn't have energy, and they wouldn't be able to match the intensity in the snow, on their own field, with that massive crowd so jacked up and loud to start the game. There's no way I would have expected that. I kept waiting for a spark.

I kept expecting them to break out. And they did have some extended drives, but it was slow, it was plodding. There wasn't that fire and same intensity. And you could see it when the reverse was true with the Bengals offense on the field against their defense. How often the Bengals offense, when they chose to go airborne, was able to find a hole, a seam, some space. It felt as though the Bills never responded to that early 11-minute stretch. First 11 minutes of the game, the Bengals had two long drives around the Bills, three and out. That's all they managed early on, the first 11 minutes, three and out. And the Bengals put together two touchdown drives and had over 100 yards.

Joe Burrow goes nine for nine. And once they had that lead, they were then able to run the ball more. Everything the Bengals tried worked. Now, could these two teams lace it up on the field another nine times and it go that way every single game?

No, hell no. The Bills are too good for that, which is why I was surprised. This was not even remotely close to a Bills peak performance.

And again, credit the Bengals. But if the Bills are playing a better game, this is a tighter one. It's closer. It's what I was expecting. It's what a lot of people were expecting. I thought it was going to be a toss up.

I had no idea who was going to win. Momentum is so fleeting in sports. These two teams both had long win streaks, right? So the Bills had won eight in a row. The Bengals had won nine in a row. Both teams had to fight for their division titles. Both teams had gone through such adversity.

Bills even more than the Bengals. I expected to get heart, soul, blood, sweat, tears. I expected to get all of the energy and intensity that they could muster. And it just didn't happen from the Bills. But that's sports, right? That's human nature.

Sometimes you just come out flat and you stink. Now what I would have thought is that there would be adjustments and we would see a little different group coming out. A half time maybe. They did start the third quarter with a seven minute drive but only ended up with a field goal. So once again, credit to the Bengals defense for snuffing out every single attempt the Bills had to generate some momentum and to generate some rhythm.

And I said this last night and I'll say it again. What stood out to me is that the Bengals on both sides of the ball were winning their individual battles. The me and you.

Me versus you. Whether it be on the O line, on the D line, downfield. Whether it be the various special teamers, right?

The Bengals were winning those individual battles the majority of the time which made for an overwhelming and convincing team victory. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio, Dan Hoard, Dave Lapham. Wait, is that who you used? Westwood won? Sorry about that.

Ian Eagle, Westwood won. It was a long time ago. I've been talking for a couple of minutes with the call from the late stages of the game at Orchard Park in the snow. Josh Allen did not have three turnovers like the week before but knows this was not his best performance. I don't think we obviously executed at a high level and that starts with me.

You know, what weren't as detailed as maybe we would have liked to have been. But again, credit to the Bengals. They had a really good game plan.

They came out on both sides of the ball and they were firing. Yeah, we just didn't answer back. It's true. You can say it.

You can know it. It still doesn't make it any easier to explain why. How did that happen? And now this is three seasons in a row in which the Bills have fallen short of their goal. I talked about this last night a little bit but I was thinking about specific teams that would have benefited had we not seen the Warriors with their dominant stretch. Right, the five consecutive NBA Finals. How about the Oklahoma City Thunder? Do you think they would have gotten to a couple of NBA Finals? Maybe the Houston. I almost said the Astros. The Houston Rockets.

Maybe they would have gotten to at least one. Not a huge fan of them when James Harden was there but maybe they would have gotten to one. Portland Trail Blazers. The Clippers. There would have been other teams that would have had a chance to rise in the West.

But they were blocked by the supremacy of the Warriors. Well that's the case right now with the Chiefs and the Bengals. The Chiefs have run into five straight AFC Championship games.

Five straight. Until the last time that happened was the Patriots. And they were frustrating other teams in the AFC for two decades. But it's not just about you. It's not just about who good you are. It's about how good the rest of the teams around you are. And I will say this, it's going to raise the level of play. It's also going to raise the pressure on front offices in the AFC as well as coaches. Because there's really not much margin for error.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Man, three years in a row they're feeling like they're in their Super Bowl window and haven't gotten there. We've had success.

Obviously not the success that we all want which is to win the Super Bowl. But the journey continues and we won't stop until we get there. And that's the vision moving forward and we're all frustrated on a day after a loss in the division round. That's for sure.

I'm extremely proud of how far this organization has come but not satisfied. I'm a big believer in you are who you are in the last game of the season in terms of what you saw on the field. And that's what you have to address. And so obviously we weren't good enough yesterday and we need to address those areas and do what's necessary to get this organization to the Super Bowl. There's a lot of love in this locker room for each other.

But at the same time I'm sick to my stomach and a lot of guys in the locker room are as well. We want to win a Super Bowl. That's our goal and that's our mindset every time we step out on the field. And each and every year that will never change. It sucks feeling like you're close and not being able to accomplish it. I know it's been the last three years with a very similar feeling.

We've got to continue to push forward and find a way to get over this hump and set out to accomplish what we want. There was talk about Josh Allen and a shoulder injury. This goes back to Week 9 against the Jets. He did also mention the shoulder and what he's been dealing with. And Von Miller resurfacing.

Haven't heard a whole lot from him other than just various social media posts. But he is cautioning against overreaction. You know how every year, Week 1 of the NFL season, we tell you to tap the brakes overreaction to the very start of the season? Well that's what Von Miller is trying to caution against. Don't overreact.

So more from the Bills as we move forward. One hour down, it's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Thanks for hanging out with us here on CBS Sports Radio.

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