After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 2

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That's BetterHelpHELP.com slash grow. There is unfinished business in the Bay Area. 49ers ran into the Eagles last year in the NFC Championship and lost Brock Purdy, then lost another quarterback, then Brock Purdy went in but couldn't throw the football and it was tough to watch. He was so dejected.

He wouldn't even take his helmet off on the sidelines. He was so upset about getting hurt. Went through surgery, was back for the start of the year, and as I've talked about throughout the season, but specifically going back to the preseason for San Francisco, if they could get through the entire year with one quarterback, that would be a step up because of the revolving door. Primarily due to injuries.

Not so much skills and abilities, but injuries. So Trey Lance is gone. Jimmy Garoppolo is gone.

Brock Purdy, the undisputed leader of the Niners offense. And now they're getting ready to kick off their playoff run against the Green Bay Packers on Saturday afternoon. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. If you have not yet discovered the After Hours Game of the Week poll, lots of voting already. We know that people flock to sports radio this time of the year.

And so we ask you to vote on our show Twitter, After Hours, CBS, or on my Twitter. Also on our Facebook page because there are only four, but this is maybe the best weekend of the year for football. We're pleased to welcome from San Francisco now, one of our favorites, Tracy Sandler, who's the founder and CEO of Fangirl Sports and a longtime 49ers insider. First, Tracy, I've seen from your Twitter, you were in Houston for the national championship game that Michigan won. What was that like? It was incredible. Someone asked me where it fell on my sports fandom and I said, it's number one.

It's just not even close. It was so amazing. And it's a really cool thing when your school wins a national championship because it doesn't happen every day. And there's something about it.

I went to school there. You're a part of it. You feel like a part of it, maybe in a different way. And it was just the most incredible experience. It was a great game.

I mean, certainly they ended up winning by, it looked like a blowout at the end, but it wasn't really a blowout until, you know, basically through the fourth quarter. But God, it was just, it was incredible. It was one of the most incredible experiences ever.

What did it sound like? Because that's my favorite thing about championships, Super Bowls, big events is the noise. It was epic. And I had been to the Ohio State game this year. I was able to go because the 49ers played Thursday night.

So I was able to go for the first time since college. I was there for the Rose Bowl and for this. And the sound at the end when it really is all said, it's unbelievable.

And I actually, I had video of Mikey Sanrisville's interception that basically sealed the game. And just the sound on that alone is absolutely incredible. One of the most amazing things. I can't believe it was less than two weeks ago.

It feels so long ago, but it was just, it was incredible. So Tracy is with us getting ready to cover a divisional round of the playoffs. This is literally my favorite weekend of the entire NFL season because of the implications and generally the games are really good. What is the mood around the Niners as they get ready to start this playoff run? They're definitely in a good mood.

They're loose. I think the break was nice to them, but they were really smart in how they handled the break because last week was not a bye week in the traditional sense like it would be in the regular season. They had practices. They had the weekend off, but they had practices.

They treated it like a normal week, which I just think was really smart to avoid any kind of rough situation. But they're excited, loose, ready to go. Certainly not underestimating the Packers. The Packers surprised a lot of people.

Though Kyle Shanahan said this week and Chris Burster said it yesterday that yes and no. Once you start watching the film, it's not surprising at all, especially the way they played over these last several weeks. But they seem pretty business as usual, which I think is a good place to be. Seems like to a man, anybody who was asked in the Niners locker room or in the practice field this week is raving about Brock Purdy. Called it a Purdy party. I like it.

I like a Purdy party. And really interesting to think about where he was and where the Niners were this time last year. Where have you seen the greatest growth in him as now a full year starting under his belt and the undisputed leader of the offense?

Well, I think you just said it really. I mean, he's really just over the last month, month and a half, had a full season under his belt. So as good as he was last year and they had that wildcard game against the Seahawks, as good as he was, that was probably at that time one of his toughest games. He's just looser might be the right word.

I know I used it earlier about the team, but I think that that's what it is. There's a confidence. He knows he can win football games. They know he can win football games.

And not that they didn't last year. He just has the experience now. He played in, well, I was going to say three playoff games. He did not obviously last very long in the NFC Championship game because of the injury. But he's had that experience.

And so that's just a totally different thing. Because last year with the wildcard game against Seattle, he settled into it. He ended up playing well. They ended up winning.

But we did see him go through a little bit of adversity and we saw a little bit of what the playoffs can do because it's different. March Madness is what I keep saying. It's one and done. And Kyle keeps talking about it and Brock has said it too.

It's the team that plays best for three and a half hours. But the best way I can describe it is he's QB 1. And it's the way he carries himself and the confidence he has in himself and it just feels ready. And I think any jitters or any hype he had, he got out of his system in the Baltimore Ravens game on Christmas.

And now he's just very ready to go. We're always excited to connect with Tracy Sandler who covers the Niners for Fangirl Sports Network. And she's also the founder and CEO. And as we've heard, a Michigan alum. Proud Michigan alum. Very proud. Couldn't be prouder.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. I'm interested to hear your answer to this because I've heard both names floated out there for NFL MVP. McCaffrey as well as Purdy. Who would you say is more valuable? It's a very tough one. I think it's actually going to end up being Lamar Jackson.

So I don't know if it's going to even matter. But I think it's hard to say who's more valuable. I can kind of say what Kyle Shanahan had said. Pre the Baltimore game.

Because this came up a lot towards the end of December. And he said, you know, if it's a quarterback award, Brock Purdy is the MVP. And there's no doubt in my mind he's the MVP. If it's not a quarterback award. He didn't flat out say this, but he intimated if it's not a quarterback award, Christian McCaffrey is the MVP.

And I go back and forth on it. Because I think about the NFC Championship game. And once Brock was out of that game, that game was over.

That was it. And Christian was still in the game. And that's no disrespect to Christian. Christian's incredible. One of the greatest athletes I've ever seen.

One of the greatest talents I've ever seen. But I don't know if Christian leaves the game, can the 49ers still win it? Yes, I think they can. If Brock Purdy goes out of the game as we saw it, well, this year might be different. Because I think Sam Darnold could potentially hold his own. Especially with Christian McCaffrey there.

So I go back and forth on this all the time. But I will say the talent that Christian McCaffrey has. Kyle Shanahan has said he's the best athlete he's ever seen without the football in his hands. And what he brings to the offense, to the field, what he makes defenses have to do is pretty much unmatched. So I would make them co-MVPs. And that's the argument I make for both.

And I make the argument that I don't actually have a conclusion. And I would say this, the 49ers are really lucky that they're both on their football team in their offense. No doubt. While we're talking about Christian McCaffrey, I know that he's back to full participant in practice. Any other injuries the Niners are navigating right now? The only other people on the injury report were Cleland Farrell who's out this week as they expected. He has a knee injury that happened a couple weeks ago. So he's battling through that and remains to be seen how much time he would miss if they were to win this weekend. And Dre Greenlaw is questionable with an Achilles injury. He's been dealing with Achilles tendinitis. So they've listed him as questionable.

So those are the two. Obviously, Cleland Farrell, they'll very much miss on run defense. And Dre Greenlaw, of course, if he is not able to go, they will miss him very much generally on defense. But for the most part, they're pretty healthy.

George Odom is going to come off IR. This is a pretty healthy football team at the moment. Talking about coaches, there's obviously a relationship here between Kyle and Matt Leflore. Yes. Where do you believe that they're similar and how do you think they're different? For lack of a better term, they grew up together, at least in coaching.

Do we think they are? They do have a similarity in their ability to scheme and their ability to play to their players strengths and scheme to their players strengths and game plan to their players strengths. They're both very creative. I was going to say that maybe Kyle's slightly more creative, but I actually don't know that that's true. I don't know if that's a fair thing to say, but Kyle still feels to me a little bit like Matt Leflore's older brother that's like maybe less than a year older than him.

Does that make sense? It kind of feels like a little bit of that just in terms of he taught Matt Leflore. Matt learned under Kyle. Matt learned under the Shanahan system. I kind of look at it that way, but I think what makes this game kind of interesting is that Matt Leflore has yet to beat Kyle Shanahan in the playoffs.

Although from a talent perspective, the 49ers are certainly the more talented team, this Packers team is playing really well. Part of the reason they're playing really well is they are very well coached and he is putting them in a position to succeed. When you see the game plan they had against the Cowboys the other day, it worked perfectly. They were extremely prepared, whereas the Cowboys really did not seem like they were, but they were extremely prepared and every single thing that they did worked and that is really good coaching. At some point Matt Leflore is going to beat Kyle Shanahan in the playoffs. I'm not saying it's going to be this week, but at some point it's going to happen and this Packers team does look very good right now.

Definitely does. In fact, we're able to establish the run against the Cowboys which really gave Jordan an advantage. They weren't able to get to him.

They got close, but they weren't able to drag him down. So how do you think the Niners defense matches up with the Packers and approaches this game? Well, I think for the Niners defense it's going to be about the run. On both sides of the ball it's going to be about the run, especially if there's rain. But I think for both teams it's going to be stopping the run and on offense getting the run going, but that's going to be a huge thing. I think the 49ers match up well, but it's something to keep an eye on because they did struggle the last several weeks of the season against the run. Now they did not have Eric Armstead, which made a big difference. He will be back this week because he's not on the injury report.

Good to go. So that will make a huge difference for them because we did see them struggle kind of once he went out, but that is going to be a challenge for the San Francisco team. Now I do think the difference is I think this line will be able to get to Jordan Love. I think they're just a little bit better at bringing pressure to the quarterback, and I just think they'll be more prepared for that.

So I think that's really going to be where the big difference is, but stopping the run is going to be a key for both teams. Tracy Sandler is with us talking about this divisional game between Packers and Niners. Man, I can only imagine what the viewership numbers will be when we think about 40 million for Packers and Cowboys.

And these are two, of course, iconic franchises in the NFL. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Okay, a couple of questions I want to ask in terms of personnel. So first, what does Adam Peters give to the commanders as their new GM? First of all, I just want to say that Adam Peters is the best, and he will be so missed in San Francisco.

He's so fantastic, a fantastic human, fantastic at his job, so happy for him and his family and wishing him so much luck. But he brings to the commanders a tremendous amount of experience, and he's been in San Francisco since 2017. He's going to a place that needs to do what the 49ers needed to do when John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan came to them and with Adam Peters.

And he was John's right-hand man. So he saw, not only did he see, he was integral to the building of San Francisco's football team and integral to getting them where they are today. And so the commanders have somebody with that breadth of knowledge and experience and ability to do that and to help the commanders get to potentially the place the 49ers get to.

It'll probably take a little time, just as it did in San Francisco, but you're not going to get anybody better than Adam Peters to help you build a franchise and a football team and a culture. I was talking about Kyle and John Lynch recently on the show with all this talk about how much control some of these more experienced championship head coaches will want if they take a new job. And the system in San Francisco is that Kyle has final say, though the two of them work very closely together. Knowing what you know about their partnership, their relationship, why does it work so well? Because I think they've always been on the same page. They came in together, they have a good relationship, and they are very much on the same page. They are very like minded and I think the roles were established very early. And there's something about coming in together in that way. I don't think we've seen that a lot.

You may get a GM who gets to come in and pick his coach and in a coaching search and they picked him. But these two came in together as a team from the get go and they were always in lockstep. And I think that is why it works so well. And I think they're both very good at knowing what they know and knowing what they don't and listening to the people who can tell them about what they don't know. And that's such a huge thing about success in any business. And I think it's worked really well for the two of them.

And I think it's a great point. They came in together and the roles were predetermined, though it is a little rare that the head coach would have the final say over the GM. And yet, as much as I know, maybe you know differently, it doesn't seem like they've ever had any conflicts and that, as you point out, they're always in lockstep.

As far as we know, things have worked very smoothly and worked well. And I don't know how many times heads have been butted to a point that Kyle had to have a say over John. Talking about butting heads, when Jim Harbaugh was there in the Bay Area, he and Trent Balke butted heads, of course, and that's how he ended up at Michigan once the Niners let him go. What do you want for Jim Harbaugh moving forward in terms of his next gig? I want Jim Harbaugh to be happy, but I would really love for him to be happy in Ann Arbor.

That's what I want more than anything. Now, if Jim Harbaugh wants to go to the NFL and he wants to win a Super Bowl, he gave us a national championship. The whole tenure has been great. The last three years have been absolutely incredible and you couldn't ask for more, but I would really love Jim Harbaugh to just be happy in Ann Arbor and continue there.

That would be my ultimate hope, but I just want Jim to be happy. I love him. I love him so much. Remember a few years ago when there was all this talk because Michigan couldn't beat Ohio State and what a difference a couple years makes.

Yes, what a difference it makes for sure. He's put together a really good team at Michigan. A lot of those guys are going to be in the draft. So many of the guys that everybody watched in the national championship are going to be playing in the NFL next year, but he put together a terrific team and terrific coaching staff. I don't think we could say enough about the job Sharone Moore did in Jim Harbaugh's absence, but yeah, what a difference a few years makes. Now Michigan's on top of that and riding that ride. That's the fun thing about rivalry. That's the fun thing about sports and college football. It is cyclical, but I just love Jim Harbaugh and I really would love him to stay in Ann Arbor. Alright, so you can find Tracy on Twitter at Tracy FGSN, the founder and CEO of Fangirl Sports and specifically covering the Niners.

We'll be excited to catch up with her in Vegas with or without the Niners, but they certainly have a great track to finish this business of theirs that they started last year. Thank you so much. Good to talk to you, of course, and we'll see you soon. Alright, thanks Amy. Have a great rest of your night.

It's so fun to be able to say that to people. We will see you soon Tracy or as I said to Mike Pritchard when he joined us from Vegas actually on our last show. We'll see you soon Mike Pritchard. We're already starting to put the pieces in place because after hours we'll head to Vegas. Super Bowl, Radio Row, and for the first time in, gosh, four years we're looking forward to a big ol' production.

Exactly. Speaking of Vegas, isn't that where the Capitals won their championship going back a few years ago? It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. What is the game of the week? We've got the poll up on both Twitter and Facebook.

Also asking for your bold and wild and, hmm, bold and wild and out on a limb predictions for Divisional Weekend. So again, on Twitter, ALawReady. Listen up.

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Financing subject to credit approval. Yo, and then our Facebook page too. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. He hasn't been on a bye week. We pushed the heck out of Brock.

Meetings, practice. I mean, we knew Sam was playing that whole game and Brock was still splitting reps with him. So Brock got a good weekend. And Brock went out with the guys on Monday, did a bunch of stuff with them. In terms of time off, he did have two quarters off to what we could have done with him. But we definitely think that was worth it. And I don't worry about that affecting Brock at all for Saturday.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. It's a purty party. We'll wait until QB news to hear from Brock himself. But yeah, everyone talking about the Niners and the Ravens, of course, as the top seeds as they get back into action. I don't know if you remember outside of Houston and Baltimore, but the Ravens and the Texans actually kicked off in week number one. And certainly neither team is who they are now, where they are now. Neither team resembles those teams that kicked off the season. And I say this frequently, but no team starts the year ready to win a championship.

It's a process. And right now, would you believe they're going to kick off again to start divisional round of the playoffs? What is the After Hours game of the week? Marco Boletti told us that for him, it's Ravens and Texans. Just because the way the Texans have navigated this first year with D'Amico Ryans and CJ Stroud and some of the other young guys.

It's phenomenal. I mean, they've got a few veterans for sure. And obviously, D'Amico played as a linebacker for the Texans.

He was in the playoffs himself. But this is all new and it's like lightning in a bottle, which I would love to see sometime actually, lightning in a bottle. But if you're holding the bottle and you see the lightning, that probably means that something's going to go horribly wrong. Anyway, what is the After Hours game of the week? After Hours, CBS naturally is where you can find the poll on Twitter.

And then we'll take your bold predictions as well. Producer Jay is retweeting them from our show account on our Facebook page. Well, it's just an open thread so you can check that out as well. Our phone number eight five five two one two four two two seven eight five five two one two four CBS. Sean is listening in Massachusetts. Welcome to the show. Congratulations on getting married. Thank you.

I just started listening to you guys about two weeks before you got married. Well, I hope that you know that it's only going to happen once in my life. So those stories are now dying down. There you go. So one, I don't think Laurie's going to let go of Nick at all. But if he does, I would assume I would hope Jim Harbaugh went to the Eagles.

He's hungry for a Super Bowl, you know? Yes. So and like you're I forgot her name. Sorry, I was listening to Tracy. Yeah, Tracy. Tracy.

Yes, Tracy. She was talking about he's got experience with college kids that are going to be coming up. So it'd be a good fit for the Eagles to win a Super Bowl within the next couple of years.

Now, I wouldn't be surprised if he takes an NFL job, but I don't think that one's going to be open. I'll have to agree with you there. Yeah.

Yeah. So now my five year old, I went through and I was talking to my five year old and I was asking her, who do you think she's going to win this weekend? And her picks are the Green Bay Packers, the Lions, the Bills and the Texans. I like it.

That's boldness. Good for her. Wait, so does she know anything about football or you just show the matchups?

OK, show the matchups. Yeah. So I'm an Eagles fan and my daughter's a Broncos fan because she likes horses.

Nice. Now, see, you tell your daughter that the radio host is also a Broncos fan since age 13. And the funny story about me. Yeah, I didn't know anything about football. I just happened to be watching a game between the Patriots and the Broncos when I was a kid. My stepfather was a Patriots fan. And so I remember that they were trailing Broncos were trailing 21 points in the fourth quarter.

And John Elway pulled one of those crazy fourth quarter comebacks that he was so known for. And I do nothing about the game, but I was hooked on the adrenaline. And from that I was screaming like a wild banshee. And from that point on, I decided that's it. Now, they lost three more Super Bowls before they finally won one. It's a wonder I survived.

But yeah, I got hooked at 13 and had to learn the game after the fact. I just knew it was really exciting. Yeah, she's been rooting for the Eagles and because that is the Eagles fan. Yeah, but she's outside God. The Broncos aren't going to make it this year. Alright, I'm going to switch the Eagles for this year then. Oh, poor girl. Maybe she'll be a good luck charm and the Broncos will make the playoffs at some point in her lifetime again.

Maybe, maybe. Awesome. Thank you, Sean.

Good to talk to you. Enjoy the weekend, divisional playoff weekend. The stories that we can tell about when we became sports fans and how we became sports fans, a lot of us do inherit those or we model the fandom from our parents.

For me, as I say, it was just watching this game on TV and just couldn't get over the excitement of John Elway leading that fourth quarter comeback even though I was watching with my stepfather who was cheering for the Patriots. Marco, do you remember when you became a football fan? No, it feels like the crib because I really don't know.

Not the crib as in really cool house, like MTV cribs. Yeah, no. I was four or five.

I don't know why. My parents, no. Born and raised in Italy. Don't watch sports. My father's a soccer guy, but no.

So not from them. Interesting. My brother and I, he's four and a half years older than me, so we were watching it together and we both became crazed lunatic sports fans, but neither one of us understand why. We have different teams.

It's the excitement. Yeah, we didn't like, you know, I'm a giant fan. He's a jet fan. We didn't opposite on purpose.

We're both Yankee fans. So like it doesn't make a lot of sense. It was just little kids gravitating to whatever was in front of them and it had nothing to do with how good they were or that.

I don't know. I don't know if it was the colors because, you know, I have no idea. But at five years old, I knew I was, you know, diehard with the Yankees and diehard with the Giants.

And I don't really know why. Oh, awesome. And it stayed. You and your brother together, though, growing up together like that. Yeah, we always. Yeah, it's unfortunate that we don't get a chance to watch the games together now.

But yeah, growing up into our, you know, I guess the thirties and then, you know, life just kind of takes you to different spots. But yeah, we watched every Sunday as much as we could. Yankee playoff games, anything that was remotely big.

We were together watching it. Have your parents grown accustomed to the crazed American football fandom here? My father watches the games. He thinks he knows what's going on.

But I mean, I would question that. My mother wouldn't know a baseball from a football. She knows that we're all into it.

Stop it. She has no idea. Has not a clue. She didn't come to this country until she was 18, 19 years old.

She has no idea, nor does she care. Do they still speak Italian on a regular basis? Yes. That's cool.

Yes. My mother's accent is quite thick. Oh, that's awesome. So my grandfather used to write me letters in Italian and they're in boxes somewhere, right? So I could speak Spanish.

So, you know, the languages are very similar. So I would be able to read a little bit of it. But as Bob and I are going through boxes and reorganizing the house, it's my chance to go through what, the last like five boxes from the move. And most of them is, you know, it's memorabilia. It's old cards and letters.

And I would generally just chuck it out because a lot of it's old stuff. But you never know where there might be a letter from my grandfather lurking. And so I'm hoping to find them. I know they're in my house somewhere, but I'm hoping to find them and then I'll have to bring them in.

You can see them. Now, you said he wrote it inside. Was he born there? He was first generation American. So, yeah. So his parents emigrated here and he was born in northeast Ohio. Well, actually, he was born in western Pennsylvania, just over the Ohio line. And so, but he, yeah, his parents came over.

Some of his siblings were born in Italy. Yeah. So good stuff. Yeah. I got a lot of family that's still there that I've never met.

Really? I've never been. Don't you want to go? I would love to.

I want to go, too. Just family heritage. Yeah. I mean, my parents are from different towns, small towns, close, not that far. But from what I understand, I mean, I don't know. Now I get around much easier. They made it sound like, you know, if you were one town over, it was like you were on the other side of the earth.

It doesn't really matter. You're not going to get to each other anyway. But I would like to see some of my family. Unfortunately, you know, now I'm getting older and they're, you know, like a lot of my family has passed on. Have they been back? They went back for the first time in 98 because we sent them there for their 25th wedding anniversary.

Oh my gosh. And it was the first time my mom went back since the day she left. My father had been there once when he buried his father, which was way before they got married.

So he hadn't been there. Do they meet there or here? No, here. Here.

Okay. Isn't that crazy? They both come over and they meet here. My next door neighbors are from Poland, both of them immigrated to the United States with their families and met here and got married. But I suppose a lot of the cultural communities, they generally tend to settle in the same areas, go to the same area, you know, so they can have people that are similar, right? And so maybe that's how it happens.

I'm sure. But I will tell you one that's weirder for me. My mother's best friend growing up in Italy moved to America before she did. So she hadn't seen her since she was about 10, 12 years old. She met when she came here after, I don't know, five, six, seven years, whatever it was that she met my father. One of the times that they were out, my father was like, oh, this is a friend of mine that I went to school with. And it's my mother's best friend from when she grew up. And they are best friends to this day. It was the first time they had seen each other since they were in Italy. They both said they started screaming when they saw each other.

Oh, my God. And they have been basically inseparable for whatever, 50 years since. That's amazing. Which is just wild.

Like, how is that even possible? But I guess it does make sense because there are a lot of immigrants that went to the same areas. Right.

Same places, settled same places, went to the same types of stores and churches. Right, right, right. Oh, that's so cool. I love those kind of stories. I love to hear my family stories.

My grandmother used to tell all kinds of great stories about, so she was Polish, so that was Grammy Helen. So that was fun. Oh, so cool. Now, this is way more interesting than football. On Twitter, ALawRadio, what are your bold predictions?

Same thing on our Facebook page. Take the poll for Game of the Week. Coming up, you know defense wins championships, right? Call 562-314-4603 for complete details. When something happens to your car, you might say, No!

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Yep, Graybar does that. I agree. Defense travels well.

It generally plays well in the cold. If you can stop the run, that is half the battle. Give the ball back to your quarterback, right? Love the defenses that we have still standing in the divisional round of the playoffs.

Like Baltimore, one of the best in the entire NFL, which is why they've got the best record in the NFL. And for Roquan Smith, there's no pressure that comes with being the number one seed. Now, they are born into this. They're ready. Pressure?

Hell, I don't feel pressure at all. But some do say pressure burst pipes will make diamonds. And hey, you know, I know a lot of guys in there like diamonds. So I would say we're in the diamond making business at the end of the day.

But at the end of the day, we just got to come out and be who we are. And that's going to start from the first play to the last play. Send a message exactly who we are and what we've been all year.

And this is a new year right here. So everybody is zero and zero going into each and every game. That's about winning the game at hand. And that's our focus.

And I know if we do everything to the standard that we know, everything else will work out for us. The Ravens are home dealing from a position of strength coming off a bye week. And linebacker Blake Cashman from the Houston Texans was on the Jim Rome show.

Why? Well, because it's a challenge to stop the Ravens offense. Lamar Jackson alone is a cheat code.

People like to call him that. So what's the key, Blake? This team, especially Lamar, but they got weapons all over the field that, you know, they're cutting back on the film. And you cut on the tape, they're making guys miss. And that's when you have explosive play. That's when you have a leaky yardage or extra yardage that, you know, doesn't need to happen. If you can just press, you know, the near hip, have great eyes and make the play, make the tackle.

So, you know, every guy has their own assignment. Just stay disciplined, move with what your eyes tell you. And, you know, when the opportunity is there and you put out the ball carrier, you know, make the tackle.

That's the key, make the tackle. Blake Cashman on the Jim Rome show as the Texans prepare for their toughest challenge. Yet, staying in the AFC, we go from the first game of the weekend to the final game of the weekend. This time it's the Chiefs at the Buffalo Bills. So a little bit of a reversal here for Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City.

Let's go! Sean McDermott, head coach of the Buffalo Bills, knows that Mahomes and his homies, the Chiefs offense, they're also a handful. When you look at what Patrick Mahomes has done over the course of his career, in particular in the playoffs, you know, he is the catalyst for that offense as well as Andy. And they've got a great pairing there and they've done a great job over the years and have been very successful.

So we have a lot of respect for what they've accomplished and what they've done this season. This may not be the best year for the Kansas City Chiefs. Again, they're on the road.

And actually, numbers wise, it's the worst year for Patrick Mahomes and his career. But you know what's playing lights out? The defense. So the Chiefs defense, they're not messing around. They're going to be a challenge and maybe they're the better unit in Buffalo.

We will see. Speaking of defense, though, the Bills' Von Miller. Well, he's been, I want to say AWOL, but he's been on and off the field rather frequently. More off, I guess, than on lately.

But would you believe that he's ready to go for divisional weekend? I'm feeling good. I'm here and I say it all the time, but I think really me sitting down for that Patriots game was really like, really just got the ball rolling to be able to have a second bye week and to just rest and get ready to go.

And then when we played Miami, I felt super refreshed. It took me about four months to get to this point. I anticipated me coming back by the end of training camp and feeling good, but that wasn't the case. It took longer than expected, but I'm back.

I'm back to feeling like my old self. I appreciate his honesty. Von Miller, if he's a wild card, if he can make an impact. Well, man, that could tip the scales against that Chiefs offense.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. Chris Jones is feeling it. Not only has he had a great season in which he has met his sack incentive. We get to see that celebration in week 18, but he apparently does impressions. So this is Chris Collins worth of NBC describing Patrick Mahomes. Listen, guys, we're talking about a guy in Patrick Mahomes who's been throwing the ball since he was eight years old.

That's Chris Collins worth. That's from NFL films, by the way. No snow in the forecast, but it will be cold for the Chiefs and the Bills on Sunday evening.

It's 630 Buffalo time. Listen, guys. All right, let's turn our attention to the NFC.

Another linebacker, Shaq Barrett of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Hey, we finally found our stride. I feel like as a team, we've been chopping away, chopping away, chopping away throughout the season. We grinded out the times when we was losing. We tried to stay humble in the times we was winning. Now is the time for us to just keep grinding it out and stay the course.

And we can see the first of our labor, but we're not done yet. They're a hot team right now. They've won six of their last seven, and they have had some critical wins.

A victory over the Packers, a victory over the Jaguars. And they played their way into the NFC South title. We saw the defense lead the charge, though. Can Shaq and that Bucs defense stop the run along the D line? They've been really good, but we know the Lions have a great offensive line that clears the way for the run and protects Jared Goff. And, of course, Aiden Hutchinson spearheading the Lions defense that has to corral Baker Mayfield. He's playing with a lot of confidence right now, and he's a guy that thrives off of that confidence. So we've got to contain him in the pass game and got to get pressure up front and bat down some balls and do what we've got to do. Can you imagine the atmosphere?

Last we knew, the average ticket price to get into Ford Fields, which is a dome, was nearly $1,200. Wowzers. We will use this as fuel.

I've got pure octane right now. Controlled fury. The other NFC game is Saturday evening, and Jonathan Owens, safety for the Packers, also the hubs of, shoot, Simone Biles. Yes, thank you. I could see her face.

I couldn't remember her name. The Packers' defense will be on takeaways. Man, the ball is the most important thing.

It's only one of them. Everyone's looking at it, so we always make a big emphasis on creating turnovers and takeaways, taking the ball away, not waiting on offense to make something happen. So that's always a big part of the game plan. We just did an entire conversation with Tracy Sandler on the Niners as they come off their bye week. Unless you think they're taking the Packers lightly, that is not the case. In fact, all-world pass rusher Nick Bosa actually believes they're better off now than they were last year.

They have a lot of the same guys from the past, really good teams they've had, and a quarterback who does exactly what he's coached to do, which Aaron Rodgers is Hall of Famer and unbelievable, but he kind of went outside of the realm of coaching, and sometimes it's good when you have a guy who does what he's coached to do. I don't think so. Aaron always so quick to respond to criticism. Well, that's interesting. I wonder what kind of intel Nick Bosa has.

Or maybe he just did a lot of film. Don't make s*** up, okay? You don't have my number.

You're not going to have my number. He apparently was watching the All 22 and noticing that Jordan Love is actually going along with the game plan. There's nothing wrong with freelancing, and as Nick points out, yes, Aaron is a Hall of Famer, but sometimes freelancing leads to confusion. Jordan Love's thriving right now in the Packers system.

Will they pose a challenge for the Niners? It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. That's better help. H-E-L-P dot com slash grow. Call 562-314-4603 for complete details. When something happens to your car, you might say, No!

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