JR SportBrief Hour 1

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That's betterhelp.com slash positive. You're listening to the J.R. Sportbrief on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the J.R. Sportbrief on CBS Sports Radio.

It is CBS Sports Radio and you are locked in to the J.R. Sportbrief show. Happy Monday to you. I hope you had a tremendous weekend. I'm going to be hanging out here with you for the next four hours. I'm being joined by super producer and host Dave Shepherd. I'm being joined by you.

Yeah, you, everybody listening all over North America. So thank you for that. I'm going to try to have some fun here.

OK, here's the situation. If you want to talk to me, we got a phone number. It's 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. If you want to get in touch with me on social media, it's simple.

It's at J.R. Sportbrief. And if you follow me on social media, you already know what we're going to talk about. You probably already know what we're going to talk about. It's the NFL playoffs. We've now moved towards a Final Four. San Francisco, the Eagles, and then we will see the Chiefs and Bengals one more time. Everybody else, they asked to stay at home.

Sorry. And so we're going to talk about it all, the good, the bad, the ugly. We're going to have an entire week to look ahead towards the upcoming AFC and NFC championship games that will take place on Sunday.

And so we'll get there. And so tonight we'll talk about the teams that are, quite frankly, they're thinking about the offseason. Guys have packed up their bags. Press conferences have been held. We may have seen some guys for the last time in a particular uniform.

I don't know, maybe a Daniel Jones or Saquon Barkley. We'll certainly discuss what the hell is going on with the Dallas Cowboys as they lose to the 49ers again in the postseason. Dak Prescott just turning the ball over. So we got a lot to do, a lot to discuss. So whether you're listening on the free Odyssey app, A.U.D.A.C.Y., whether you're not, you're tuned in on your local affiliate, or you're on Sirius XM 158, or you're listening on a smart speaker. We're going to be busy and we're going to have a lot of fun.

But before I do anything, before I move forward any, any additional minute. Shep, how are you, man? You doing OK? Did you have a good weekend? JR, I had a good weekend.

Thank you for asking. I had a better weekend than Dak Prescott, who all of a sudden reverted back to old Dak. I don't give a damn about Dak, Shep. I'm trying to talk about you and your weekend. You're telling me about Dak. He sucks. We know.

We'll get to him. I'm asking about you. I had a wonderful weekend. Thank you for asking.

Met some nice people. I'll leave it at that. People. OK. People. That's plural. More than one. More than one. Yes.

Oh, nice. See, that's what I ask. If I want to ask you about Dak, I'll say, Shep, what do you think about Dak? Tell me. But I want to know about you. I care about you. And that obviously goes a very mutual feeling, JR. How was your weekend, man? It's good to have you.

Always. Well, thank you. It was good. I watched football. I hung out with some friends. I watched the New York Giants get their asses whooped by the Eagles while at a Hawks game, so it was good all the way around. Yeah. Good stuff. You had a better weekend than some other guy on Fox, apparently, too, right?

What happened? Well, you know, an individual that thinks he's still an athlete. Oh, Shannon? Oh, he's still an athlete. Shannon Sharpe?

Yes. Oh, Shannon Sharpe is still an athlete. Have you seen that guy in the gym? So he's a bodybuilder. I'll give him that, but he's no athlete anymore.

Oh, ouch. You think his knees hurt? Well, I think he stopped playing at 35 for a reason. His ankles hurt, too, right? Well, I mean, his ankles were hurt if he had to guard Dylan Brooks, a guy he was, you know, jiving and clowning on at a Lakers game on Friday.

Yeah. So if we each took a knee, we'd get Shannon Sharpe out of here, right? Listen, Shannon Sharpe is amazing at what he does. He was an incredible tight end, but I also think at the same time, you have to realize that nobody is there to see you go back and forth with NBA basketball players. You had your time. Now it's your innate right to cheer, but not to try to curse out other players on the floor.

He's better than that. Well, he said sorry, so we'll talk about Shannon Sharpe later on in the show as he had a lot of attention on himself before the NFL playoffs got underway, and then he apologized. Congratulations to Shannon Sharpe for not getting smashed by Steven Adams, but we'll talk about Shannon Sharpe. As Shep mentioned, they had quite a few teams who had a good weekend and some had bad ones. Half of them were going on and the other half, quite frankly, they're going home. But if you have to think about one team that's going home, it's a major disappointment.

It's a disaster. It's the Buffalo Bills. This was a team that was just pretty much set up and primed and selected by many, including myself, most to go to the Super Bowl to have the best chance to represent the AFC in Arizona.

But they're not. They're going home again. Josh Allen turning the football over, and it's not just this past game against the Bengals where the Bills obviously lost 27 to 10. You know, Josh Allen, he threw an interception at the end of the game.

Okay, fine, granted. This game was, it was just a chase. The Buffalo Bills couldn't generate anything. They had 63 yards rushing.

Terrible. Stefan Diggs was held to 34 yards receiving. He's yelling at Josh Allen at the end of the game. He's trying to leave early after the game. And we know about the Bills and their injuries and this doesn't make any of it easier. And we also know about DeMar Hamlin.

It seemed like one of those Disney stories. They were even selling tickets already for the AFC Championship game to take place here in Atlanta between the Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs. Not going to happen. The ultimate motivation for the Bengals were the NFL and nobody is giving them a chance. Everybody's ready to jump the gun. Nobody sees the future of the Bengals going back to the Super Bowl. And here they are one more step and one more time away. Pretty hilarious. Everybody looking at these, these Bengals and thinking they just roll over and they rolled right the hell over the Bills. And so after the game, Josh Allen, he decided to give the Bengals credit and why not? They just whooped they ass.

Listen. You want to win all of them? That's the way it goes sometimes. They had a good, they had a good game plan. Credit for those guys that came out, they played hard. We just didn't have today.

Couldn't find it. I thought we moved the ball when we had some of our possessions, but the two early three and outs just stalling throughout the, throughout the game. That's, you can't win football games that way.

No, you can't. They were bad and I feel like I'm watching a repeat. I feel like I'm watching the Twilight Zone episode for, I don't know, the 50th time over the past 20, 30 years. Josh Allen is not, not Superman. They got to figure out an offensive system where this man isn't running around doing it all.

And I get it. Day ball is gone. Dorsey has been running the offense. Can they find and establish an offense that doesn't just put Josh Allen in the complete driver's seat? Can they add a little bit more diversity to the run game? Does he have to be the dude running a rock?

It's unnecessary all the damn time. Head coach Sean McDermott. Okay.

Yeah, sure. Brian Day ball is gone. Sean McDermott is still there.

The Buffalo Bills had another amazing season. So here's the head coach of the Bills, Sean McDermott. This is what he said went wrong. You've heard me talk about this before. If you want to win games on a consistent basis, that's where the game starts. It's there and it's at the quarterback position and we didn't do enough, I would say, overall at the line of scrimmage tonight. Give the Bengals credit.

But you probably saw what I saw. Uh oh. Quarterback? He's not just blaming the quarterback, right?

He's not. The defense has been injured, has been hurt. There obviously was no Von Miller there.

There was no Micah Hodger. Davis White, although he was able to come back and play, he's still recovering. I'd say not at a hundred percent from an ACL injury. The defense suffered a little bit. But he better go talk to his offensive coordinator. Yeah, Josh Allen.

He turned the ball over at a good clip this year. He also got injured. He was hurt. He said that dealing with his arm and his shoulder, his elbow, it's just a matter of rest. He doesn't need surgery. He just needs to rest. And we could potentially, uh, you know, pin that on why the Buffalo Bills season came to an end. We could.

But we've seen this story before. Josh Allen plays football. Before Josh Allen plays football, Josh Allen puts on a cape and Josh Allen goes out onto the field and he does it all. Well, when the passing game isn't working, what are you doing? Josh Allen rushing? Devin Singletary had 24 yards.

James Cook, he was supposed to come in drafted from Georgia, supposed to go out there and help at 13 yards. The Bengals are one of the best run stuffing teams in the league. The Buffalo Bills, they just, they just went flat. They didn't necessarily have a dominating victory over the beat up Miami Dolphins to get here. So maybe the Buffalo Bills were just beat up. But this is a hell of a disappointment for a team that was expected to go to the Super Bowl, expected to ride the DeMar Hamlin wave unless they were fatigued.

Unless they were completely worn out. But for that team. That went in the early 90s to four consecutive Super Bowls. And lost every single one for the fans in Buffalo that throw themselves through tables and and also are extremely charitable.

They're crazy, but they're nice. They have to wait one more year. And I certainly hope that they can get their offense together in due time. Because people are going to start to point fingers at Josh Allen. They're going to say, oh, stop turning the ball over.

And yes, sure, you need to stop turning the ball over. He had a turnover yesterday to pretty much end the game. He had two interceptions against the Dolphins. He's had six interceptions in his last four games to go with eight touchdowns.

That's a, that's a poor ratio. But I feel I'm back to saying the same damn thing I say every year. They need to move into an offensive system where Josh Allen isn't doing all the work. I know it's tempting. You see a big old weapon that's able to go out there and abuse defensive backs and and able to get yardage.

Why not use them? Josh Allen rushed almost exact, almost had the same exact rushing numbers as last year. 762 yards and seven touchdowns. Don't you want to lessen that burden? Don't you want a running back to step up and and maybe add another wrinkle to the offense? Or maybe they just need to call Brian Deball up for some tips, even though he had his own troubles in a successful year with the New York Giants. Josh Allen can't continue, especially as he gets older. OK, and I'm not putting him in the NFL graveyard for players. He is not Tom Brady. He is not Aaron Rodgers. He's going to be 27 years old. But how many more years do you think you're going to max out with Josh Allen taking it?

I don't know. 700, 800 yards of a beating. You got running backs for. It's a beautiful thing when you have the option to run. Flinging the ball all over the damn place.

But he doesn't need to put on a cape. So Josh Allen, is it his fault? No. I look at the coordinator. I look at Ken Dorsey. I look at Sean McDermott and say, hey, OK, it's time to switch things up. This was year one with an O'Brien Deball.

What do you do next? So the Buffalo Bills go back to an AFC championship game or actually go and this time maybe go to the Super Bowl. They have the talent. They have the quarterback.

Do some better play calling to switch things up. Meanwhile, while the Bills go home, Joe Burrow moves on. And on the field at the end of the game, where everybody mostly thought the Bills were going to win. Where there were tickets, 50,000 tickets sold to a 70 to 80 thousand seat arena, 50,000 or stadium, 50,000 tickets sold to see the Bills and the Chiefs. Joe Burrow had a simple message on CBS after the game. It was about everybody getting their damn money back. Listen to this. We talked about it yesterday. Just that chip on your shoulder. Everyone talking about a neutral AFC championship game, not even thinking about you guys. How much did that motivate you coming into this? Send those refunds.

Send all that money back. A little bit of swagger there from Mr. Joe Burrow. We saw that from when he won a championship at LSU, didn't we? 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS. It's 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS. The Buffalo Bills go home. Embarrassed.

The Bengals have now won 10 straight games. Josh Allen goes to the playoffs again and goes flat. Are you blaming Josh Allen? Stefan Diggs certainly seemed upset.

I'm going to leave these phone lines open to hear from you. What the hell went wrong with the Bills? And then I'm going to tell you what Stefan Diggs had to say about the situation as he yelled at his quarterback for the television cameras to capture.

That's what wide receivers do, right? Complain. Well, Diggs put a message out on Twitter and I'll share that with you.

I'll talk to you. I'll tell you about the Chiefs game. The Jaguars. We got a lot to do. Of course, we're going to get into the Cowboys. We'll talk about more of Joe Burrow and his success. We'll get into Mahomes and his ankle. We'll talk about the Eagles. We got a lot to do.

We're just getting started. It's the J.R. Sportbrief show. Happy Monday to you on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the J.R. Sportbrief on CBS Sports Radio.

Music. J.R. wants to hear from you. Call him now at 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4227. As the Buffalo Bills have an unfortunate end to their season. As the Buffalo Bills are pretty much embarrassed by the Bengals here. They head into an offseason where Josh Allen was hurt. Josh Allen was turning the ball over. Defense wasn't at full strength. It just seemed like the same thing over as we've seen over the past few years. OK, this wasn't a shootout against Kansas City, but they fell flat again.

And if I see a large issue here as to why they failed, it would be injuries to their defense and also I think the usage of Josh Allen. He's an MVP candidate. He's a multiple time Pro Bowler. He's still only 26 years old.

He's getting ready to turn 27. Let's get him some play calling that doesn't have him running around for, I don't know, almost 800 yards. He's not a running back. Stephon Diggs was held to 34 yards receiving.

We saw him have a fit on the sidelines. He's yelling at Josh Allen. He's leaving the game reportedly early. Had to be dragged back to the locker room.

About four hours ago, he let off a series of tweets. And he said, you want me to be OK with losing? Nah.

You want me to be OK with our level of play when it's not up to standard? Nah. It's easy to criticize my reaction more than the result. OK. Waste of time if you ask me.

Nothing to see here. Just an upset guy on social media. He was the one who was upset who wanted to be demonstrative of it. What about his other 52 teammates?

They were supposed to be sad? And so, just a waste of time defense from Stephon Diggs. 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. What the hell went wrong with these Buffalo Bills? Let's go to Western New York and let's talk to Matt. Matt is calling up from Rochester, New York. You're on CBS Sports Radio. Hey, Jared.

Thank you for taking my call. I know you just alluded to it. I blame a lot of it on the defense because obviously Josh Allen didn't have a good game, but the defense kind of acted like a sieve. Fourteen points were given up really early. I know that the Bengals had some starting offensive linemen that were backups. Bills just really couldn't stop them. I know Trey White had a couple flags later in the game, but they really couldn't stop at anything. So, being a Bills fan, I know when Allen's behind, he tries to force things and put on the Superman cape. But I also don't think the defense did him any favors.

Oh, absolutely not. You know, one of the reasons why I chose the Buffalo Bills here in this game was because of the offensive line. I mentioned that last week, and I expected Joe Burrow to be pressured much more than he was.

It did not happen. I mean, right out of the gate, the Buffalo Bills were at a disadvantage. You got Jamar Chase and Hayden Hurst.

And Hayden Hurst was wide the hell open for a touchdown. There was no barrier to entry. There wasn't any resistance. But can we be surprised? Are we shocked? This is now ten straight victories for the Bengals. They have not lost since Halloween to Cleveland. It took those two touchdowns at the beginning of the game, a couple of field goals, a rushing touchdown, 172 yards on the ground, and the Bengals had the Bills beat. You would think being in the snow would make some type of difference or be an advantage here for the Bills. It's not like the Bengals are playing in the Bahamas or Miami, but you would think running around in the snow, the Buffalo Bills would be able to control the game. But they're not smash mouth like that.

They ain't hitting you in the gut like that. And the man that they paid to do so, Von Miller, he signed that big deal, that big contract. He's the man with the championship experience. He wasn't there. He's been gone for months now.

We won't see him until next year. And so Von Miller actually spoke, and he said, oh yeah, we should be able to come back and compete again. You know, sometimes, you know, more isn't always an answer. Sometimes you just got to just keep playing, you know. Sometimes you just got to line back up, give us another year, and just go through it again.

Okay. Okay, Von Miller. So what the hell does that mean for the Buffalo Bills winning the championship? Are you all going to get punched in the mouth again next year? What's the deal, Von Miller?

What about that? I didn't feel like, you know, this would be my only shot, like this one year. I feel like I had multiple shots at the Super Bowl by the way this team was built.

You know, our quarterback, our defense, I feel like I had, you know, multiple changes at the Super Bowl, and I still feel like that, man. Look, Von Miller, must I remind you, he signed a six-year deal, $120 million. He signed this deal, he's 33 years old. He's here for the long haul. Is he going to stick around until he's damn near 40? I don't know about that. Typically, past rushers, they can age gracefully. They can still be contributors out here. But I mean, damn. This guy was getting his ass whooped, and if Von Miller was out there to hand out ass whoopings, would it be a different result? Maybe.

The Bills choked this one away. It's sad. 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. Jazzy's here from Toronto. Hey, JR. Longtime listener, first-time caller. Just wanted to say I'm a big fan.

Thank you. What's up? What are you thinking? Well, I think the person to blame here is their head coach. It looks like they got all the pieces. Maybe they need a more dynamic running back, more of like a Derrick Henry, or maybe like a Dalvin Cook, someone that could, you know, pick up those extra yards.

I feel like the running game is kind of soft, but overall, I wasn't too impressed with the offensive play calling at all. What do you think about that? They have a new OC in Dorsey while Debo went to coach the New York Giants. Here's the deal, man. I agree with you.

But that's personnel as well. Look, any team would love to have Derrick Henry. Who would love to have Derrick Henry? I think any NFL team, if you said, hey, sure, give me a running back, he's probably one of the three that you would select. And so it's easy to say, oh, well, just give us one of the best running backs in the game over the past few years. I think they got to lower the burden that's on this man, Josh Allen.

I think that's what the case is because he goes out there and he tries to do too much. Rich is here from Florida. You're on CBS Sports Radio. What's up, Rich? Thank you for having me, sir. I appreciate you taking me.

I love your show. I agree with you. Josh Allen did try to do a little too much in yesterday's game. And he was just missing targets.

He was offbeat. I'd also like to address the Cowboy fans. What happened yesterday? And also, what do you think about the USFL, XFL, if I may get your opinion on those two leaves coming in the spring? Well, I'll give you my opinion. What do you think about the spring football? What do you think?

I think it's pretty cool, man. You get football all year round. XFL has a working relationship with the NFL, so that's going to make that pretty interesting. OK. Are you going to go try out for one of the teams? Oh, God, no.

But I'm going to watch. OK. I'm going to give you my thoughts momentarily, Rich, OK? Thank you.

Thank you, Rich, for calling from Florida. People can't just help themselves with a Cowboys jab. You got to throw one in there. I mean, I did see quite a few clips on social media. People are punching televisions. They're running over televisions. Families are being torn apart because the Cowboys lost. And that's what people, people are not used to this by now. There's an entire generation of people. There's an entire generation of people who have kids now who have never seen the Cowboys win. What are people so damn surprised about?

I don't know what Kool-Aid they serving up in Dallas or for people all over America, but you should be used to this with the Dallas Cowboys. There's nothing new here. Stop breaking your TVs. I get it. They're a little cheaper now. Get a good TV for a couple hundred dollars, a big one, but don't hit the TV.

It didn't do nothing to you. It's the J.R. Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio.

I will not punch TVs. We're going to come back. I'll leave the phone lines open if you want to talk to me. I'm going to answer Rich's question about spring football. And then unfortunately, I want to tell you about another team that lost, but they might have some upside to them. I'm going to tell you about the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Then we'll get into the Dallas Cowboys losing again consecutive years to the Niners. It's the J.R. Sport Brief Show on CBS Sports Radio.

You're telling me I need to shut up. You're listening to the J.R. Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the J.R. Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio.

First time caller and listener. I'm loving the show. Your show is just absolutely outstanding. I got to tell you, I've been listening to you and I've been feeling and agreeing with your flow. Call in now at 855-212-4CBS.

It's the J.R. Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. If you've been waiting on somebody else to crap on the Cowboys. I'm not going to crap on them. I'm just going to tell you the truth. We'll do that at the top of the hour. So wait.

You don't have to wait too much longer at the top of the hour. We'll have a conversation about the Cowboys. As we opened up the show talking about the failure of the Buffalo Bills to get past the Cincinnati Bengals. We had one caller who wanted to talk about the Buffalo Bills and he almost had no choice. He couldn't contain himself. He had to talk about the Cowboys.

I guess people like rubbing it in. And outside of the Cowboys, he also mentioned spring football. I guess he's come to the realization that we only have three more games left in the NFL season. We got the two championship games coming up next Sunday. We have the Super Bowl.

And that's it, folks. Unless you consider the Pro Bowl game some type of, you know, great entertainment. This is going to be it for NFL football. But he mentioned spring football that we're going to get. The XFL now run by Dwayne The Rock Johnson. Good for him.

And the USFL. And he asked me specifically how I feel about spring football. I don't really care. Am I going to watch here and there? Yeah, I will. I'll tune in if I'm bored. If I'm home, if I have the time, if the television is on in the background. I'm sure I'll see highlights. I'll see highlights on Twitter, Instagram. Somebody will do or have a spectacular play.

But it's not something that's kind of edging me on. Oh my God, I have to watch the 50th attempt at the XFL. At least Vince McMahon isn't involved in this time.

I guess he's involved in other things like, you know, settling sexual assault lawsuits. But I hope The Rock succeeds. Like everything The Rock su- Chef does The Rock- No, that movie stunk, right? Did that movie suck?

Yeah, well you're the one who brought it up. You mentioned that to me, Black Adam. Yeah, Black Adam bombed, right? It bombed big time.

Everybody, nobody bats a thousand. The Rock is entitled. I hope he has success here at the XFL. And I hope the XFL provides opportunity. And it probably will provide opportunity in another way for dudes to showcase their talents if they want to make it to the NFL.

So in that regard, I'm all for it. I will sit down and watch it, but I'm not going to tune in like it's the NFL. The players that start to bubble up and have the excitement, I'll know who they are. But man, between the college football season, the NFL season, keeping up with 32 teams and all the million in college football, the top teams there, man.

I mean, if Joe, your next door neighbor, wants to play football in the XFL, then if he can make it potentially to the NFL, then I'll watch. I got to watch March Madness. I watched the Premier League. Shep, what else do I need to watch? Anything?

Am I missing anything? NBA playoffs. That's going to be a big one. Yeah, I got so much stuff to watch. Are you going to watch the XFL, Shep?

No, no. And I'm just never been an XFL fan. I mean, if I'm going to watch football, it's going to be the NFL. And that's what makes it so appealing to me is I know that I'm not going to get football for another six months after that, which makes me want to glue in in September and October.

I'm not one of those obsessive people that watches football 12 months during the year. We need another He Hate Me. That was fun, though. They had the names. I couldn't tell you anybody else's name. There's certain guys I remember. You had Tommy Maddox. But the fact that you could slap some name on the back of your jersey to highlight personality, that was...

I can't remember anybody else but He Hate Me. I need an NFL player to legally change his name. A superstar. I need a superstar to change his name to He Hate Me.

Just so I can buy the jersey. How many people know his actual name, by the way? Nobody knows He Hates Me name.

Nobody. He's got a good sounding real name. What's He Hates Me real name?

What's his name? I believe it's Rod Smart. Rod Smart? Wait a minute.

I'm mixing up my smarts. How long was his career in the NFL? Not long enough to where we don't know his actual real name. Rod Smart. Yeah, yeah.

Practice squad here, this and that. He had one of the best names ever. He Hate Me. Good for him. Oh damn, wow. He's 46 years old. Yeah. Oh my God, let's get out of that. He Hate Me is 46.

Okay. Anyway, let's go to the opposite of old. Let's go to young. Because the Buffalo Bills weren't the only team eliminated over the weekend. It was a young team that got eliminated. See the opposite of old?

See the transition? The Jacksonville Jaguars, after looking like just ass to start the season, were able to turn things around, got into the playoffs, beat the Chargers, who always find a new way to make a mistake. And they came back and beat the Chargers 27 points last Saturday night. But now the Jags are done. Because they went up against the Kansas City Chiefs and even though Patrick Mahomes was running around on one damn leg, the Chiefs took care of them.

The Jacksonville Jaguars, the opportunities they had at the end of the game, they squatted them by turning the football over. Two turnovers late. And so Trevor Lawrence, there was no celebratory visit to Waffle House. Trevor Lawrence just, just goes home.

And the Kansas City Chiefs, they move on to their fifth straight AFC championship game. We'll get to Mahomes and his ankle. We'll talk more about that as he battled to stay in the game, didn't want to come out the game. They told him that he would not return unless he got an x-ray MRI on his leg and that he could protect himself. And he went out there and played.

I don't know what they shot this man up with, but he went back out there and he played. And he's going to play in the AFC championship game. But on the loser side, the Jags don't have nothing to be ashamed of here. You're growing team, young team. You got Trevor Lawrence finally living up to his potential at the end of the season. This man threw like 14 touchdowns to, I don't know, three or four interceptions to conclude the year.

He's actually out there working with Doug Peterson, a head coach who actually has success winning a championship with the Eagles who actually played in the NFL. And so even though this was a terrible loss, a tough way to go out for this season to end, Trevor Lawrence knows, man, we building here. You know, you worked so hard to get here and nobody thought we were going to be here. And, you know, we had our shot and that's what hurts, you know, so we'll be back. I'm confident in that.

And this isn't this is this is more the beginning than it is the end of something. Oh, well, Trevor Lawrence is like a poet. Good for him. He's living up to that that that that reputation, the expectations that people had of this dude when he was here at in Georgia.

I think at Cartersville. This man was busting ass here. Then he went to Clemson and he bust ass and he went to the NFL and then it's just like.

Who the hell is this guy? Urban my is my coach now. Terrible decision. Man didn't even last a year. But now he has an adult in the room. And we saw his growth. We saw the team's growth.

We didn't get ridiculous stories about Doug Peterson kicking his kicker or hanging out with young women that don't happen to be his wife. We just saw a turnaround. We saw a focus on football. We saw the NFL's leading tackler.

Fourier Olukon. We saw Trevor Lawrence continue to improve. We saw a full season of a healthy Travis Etienne. And we're going to continue to see growth with the Jaguars. And so Doug Peterson, after his first season.

He's like, yeah, you're going to get kicked in the mouth. But we're going to get better moving forward. You know, I told him, I says, hey, I said, just, you know, plan on every year. Let's let's let's being in these meaningful games at the end of the season. We want to be one of the one of the four or five, six teams, you know, in the AFC every year.

And our guys, our guys believe that. And, you know, we still got work to do, obviously. But it's also time to heal and to get away. And, you know, they they should have plenty of time to to heal and and get away. And if you play in the AFC South, you should actually find some optimism in the future.

Why? The Texans are rebuilding. Cults are rebuilding. Tennessee Titans are rebuilding. You think Ryan Tannehill is going to be their quarterback when he comes back?

Well, let me say when he's healthy, doubt it. Who the hell is the quarterback for the Colts? Who's the head coach for the Colts? Who's the future quarterback for the Texans? Who they going to draft? Who are they going to sign to be their head coach?

How about this? You know, you live in a crooked world. When the Jacksonville Jaguars have more stability and a brighter future than everybody else in the AFC South. I guess a shot Khan had to deal with Urban Meyer before he was able to to move on to Doug Peterson.

It's a cold world out here. But I told you about the Chiefs. They'll be moving on.

Despite Patrick Mahomes suffering a high ankle sprain. So what do you have to say about wanting to play through it? Obviously didn't want to go back and see it.

I don't want to go get the x-rays or whatever it was. I wanted just to continue to play. I told him I would do it at halftime. But coach, I mean, in the best interest of me, just made he made me go back there and get that x-ray before he put it back in the game. And for a while I thought I could get a get and play through it. And then he said, I'm not putting you back in, so you might as well go get the x-ray.

And then if it's negative or whatever, I'll put you back in. A passionate man he is, right? Throwing his jacket around. They had to force him out the game. He's throwing a fit.

Okay, fine competitor. He's going to play. Hey, Shep, I bet he's in a boot right now, isn't he? One of them air compression boots.

He's in one of them right now. I would guess so, JR, but there is no boot big enough to keep him and hold him back from that revenge that's going to be so sweet in 2022 for what the Bengals did for them last year. Oh, it's not what the Bengals did to them. They choked. They took their foot off the gas. That's a great point.

Stacking the box and all that. And then the, I believe, the 30-something yards Patrick Mahomes had in the first five drives in the second half of the 2021 AFC title game. That's a fair point. They, you know what, the bed. Did they pee in it or they crapped it? They did both because that's the most anemic I've ever seen a Patrick Mahomes slash Andy Reid offensive look. I held back, but you and I both know, JR, what we saw in that second half in 2021 in the AFC title game was unrecognizable for Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid. Yeah, they thought they had it in the bag. And so they go back to a fifth straight AFC championship game with a gimpy Patrick Mahomes there hoping that he can help lead them to victory, that he's not blitzed and running for his life again on one leg. And this is this is what no one wants to see at this point. Would you be surprised if if the Bengals go to the Super Bowl?

I think the answer is no. I don't want to see an injured Patrick Mahomes. And sure that that becomes a part of the story is a part of the story. But you always want to see two teams and I don't care what sport it is.

You want to see the best versus the best. But we know this. We've seen this. We've all experienced it.

We've all been witnesses. It's not how sports work. Sometimes it boils down to the luck of the draw when it comes down to injuries. Whether you're hurt in the regular season, whether you're hurt in the postseason, that's just how it goes. And so right now, Patrick Mahomes is getting work done on his his ankle, his high ankle sprain.

And those things are extremely painful. We'll see what happens. We'll talk about this more later on in the show. It's the JR sport re show on CBS Sports Radio. We're going to take a break. And when we come back, we're going to talk about a team that I don't know. Do they have any excuses? It's the Cowboys.

We'll get to them on CBS Sports Radio. Don't move. This show is sponsored by better help. When you're at your best, you can do great things. Working with a therapist can help you get closer to the best version of yourself, because when you feel empowered, you're more ready for life's challenges. Better help is a great therapy option. It's flexible, affordable, entirely online, and it matches you with a licensed therapist. Let therapy help empower you. Visit better help dot com slash positive to get 10 percent off your first month. That's better HELP dot com slash positive. This show is sponsored by better help.

When you're at your best, you can do great things. Working with a therapist can help you get closer to the best version of yourself, because when you feel empowered, you're more ready for life's challenges. Better help is a great therapy option. It's flexible, affordable, entirely online, and it matches you with a licensed therapist. Let therapy help empower you. Visit better help dot com slash positive to get 10 percent off your first month. That's better HELP dot com slash positive. This show is sponsored by better help.

When you're at your best, you can do great things. Working with a therapist can help you get closer to the best version of yourself, because when you feel empowered, you're more ready for life's challenges. Better help is a great therapy option. It's flexible, affordable, entirely online, and it matches you with a licensed therapist. Let therapy help empower you. Visit better help dot com slash positive to get 10 percent off your first month. That's better HELP dot com slash positive.