What Should Ravens Do With Justin Tucker? (Hour 4)

It is the JR Sportbreeze Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Man, I'll be hanging out with you for one more hour.

We've been hanging out for three. This show gets started every weekday, 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific, and we have discussed and talked about a lot. Thank you so much to Jerry Palm from CBS Sports to help us break down a lot of the college football action that took place over the holiday. We got Monday Night Football going on in Denver right now.

I'll give you an update on the score between the Broncos and the Browns in a minute. We talked about some happy coaches and some sad coaches and some upset coaches. Mike Tomlin is mad at George Pickens. What a shock, right?

George Pickens, he needs a hug. We'll get into that in a bit. Anyway, if you want to be a part of the show, you can. 855-212-4227. That's 855-212-4227.

You can find me online at JR Sportbreeze. If you've missed a minute or second of the show, you can hit rewind on the free Odyssey app or you can listen live. Thank you to people listening live on their local Infinity Sports Network affiliate. If you got Sirius XM, you can go to Channel 158.

And if you have a smart speaker, ask the speaker to play the Infinity Sports Network. What a day. I mean, even right before we got on air, we saw that snowy game last night, Sunday Night Football between the San Francisco 49ers and the Buffalo Bills. And it's crazy like the snow did Christian McCaffrey in. This man sprained his knee. People thought that he just went out there and blew out his Achilles. And we know that he's going on injured reserve. We won't see Christian McCaffrey for the rest of the year. And then his backup is out as well. Jordan Mason. This you can't write this.

The San Francisco 49ers now have a record of five and seven. Too many injuries. Brandon Iuke is done.

We won't see him. It's just it's bad. It's sad.

It's awful. Despite all of this. You know, what else are they going to say? They being the 49ers, they got to stay optimistic, right?

George Kittle told this this public lie to everybody. He says we need the other teammates to step up. OK, good luck. It's football like people go down and we've had seasons where plenty of people have gone down and you need someone to step up. And that's what we need. We need continually. You need guys to step up. And whether it's starters and players that we have that are already doing that or new guys who are getting into the rotation. You were in the NFL for a reason.

Like all these guys have belonged in the NFL and they have their playmaking abilities. And that's on all of us. OK. All right. That's fine. Reasonable.

Reasonable internally. There's. Nothing positive coming out of that. Hickey 49 is done, right? I agree. Yeah, they're done. They're done.

Anyway. Let's talk about a positive team. Congratulations to the Eagles. This is going to be a terrible punt.

Prepare yourselves. The Eagles are flying. They're flying high. Fly Eagles fly. The Philadelphia Eagles knock off the Ravens yesterday. Eagles are looking like they're going to potentially replace the 49ers and representing the NFC in the championship game. The Eagles now have a record of 10 and two after knocking off the Ravens 24 to 19. And the Baltimore Ravens cannot kick a field goal to save their life. Justin Tucker now leads the NFL with 10 kicks missed. Not a good thing.

A terrible thing. He missed two kicks yesterday and an extra point. And John Harbaugh, the head coach of the Ravens, who's watched this Hall of Fame kicker, said, I'm not cutting them and I'm not going to bench them. So quit asking. If you're asking me if we're going to move out from Justin Tucker, I'm not really planning on doing that right now.

I don't think that'd be wise. But, you know, he'll tell you. He'll be the first to tell you he's got to make he needs to make many kicks as he can. And and I just think if you look at Justin Tucker's history, you'd have to say he's capable of doing that. You know, so. But that's something he's going to want to do.

And I know we're all going to want him to do it. OK. Yeah, that kick is going to do them in that in the defense. Not looking good. There you got a miserable head coach in John Harbaugh. I'd be miserable, too, if I had to watch Justin Tucker shank kicks every week. Meanwhile, we got some happy coaches. Nick Sirianni typically sounds goofy and aloof. He sounds very happy with his offense, namely having Saquon Barkley out there and AJ in jail and hurts.

Nick Sirianni is happy because he's just like, man, look at this great roster they put together for me. Saquon deserves to be an MVP consideration. Jalen Hurts deserves to be an MVP consideration because of how clean a football he's playing. Look at his quarterback rating throughout the last month and a half of the season. Jalen Hurts is a winner. AJ could be, you know, as a guy. We have multiple guys that are that could be in consideration of that offensive line.

I wish they could give an offensive line MVP because our offensive line could be on that. Oh, OK. Hickey, if they lose is his fault, right? They're going to fire him, bring in Belichick. Was that too much? Oh, no, no, no.

Yeah, you're right. If he if they lose in the first round and the second round, depending on how they lose, even if they lose to the lines in the NFC title game. Look at this team. Who are you cutting?

Who are you trading? No, but you got to fire him. He's the weak link.

Yeah. You think if he goes back to the Super Bowl, he's going to cry again? He has to give us that one tier again. The No-Shawn Moreno.

Is that what it's called? The No-Shawn at one tier? He was he won. Remember him? His eyes were on me.

He was maybe he was both eyes, but I mean, I'm superstitious. So if I was Nick Sirianni and I made it to the Super Bowl again, you'd have to cry. You'd have to cry. Don't cry this time. I was going to say, don't cry. You cried and you lost. You can't have that happen again. OK, let's see. Certainly a realistic possibility of the Philadelphia Eagles go back to the Super Bowl.

And when you think about this, the storylines and I'm really hitting the fast sword button here, but let's be real. Both the Detroit Lions and the Philadelphia Eagles, they are the best teams in the NFC. And people look at the Lions coach and Dan Campbell and they go, this dude is just going to throw us. No, he's not going to throw us. He's going to gamble us out of the damn game.

He's going to go forward on fourth and one hundred. And then you got Nick Sirianni, who's going to call a ridiculous play that Jalen Hurts is going to want to punch him in the face for. It'll be hilarious if these two coaches just I don't want to say out coach each other. At least the players, they love Dan Campbell. They want to play for him.

Nick Sirianni, you hear the stories Jalen Hurts wants to punch him in the face, almost no relationship. Well, everything is good when you're winning. And so Philadelphia has been able to turn things around, especially on a defense. And then Jalen Hurts has been ridiculously efficient on offense. And yet you can do that when you have Saquon Barkley, who, by the way, rushed for another 100 plus yards yesterday in addition to a touchdown. So you thought Nick Sirianni was happy? Saquon Barkley is happy as well.

Take a listen to him. He's like, man, I got some real teammates and they trust me with the ball. It's a blessing having coach staff that trust it, you know, continuing lean on it. You also get a shot to defense. That means the defense is doing a really good job, too, and not letting the game get out of hand and where we get down and you got to get into the mindset of drop back and pass the ball. But we're really good at it. We're really good at a lot of things. But, you know, you just got to keep trusting the system, keep trusting the guys up front. There's tremendous talent up there.

And that's why I think the running game has been popping in the second half. All right. We're going to have plenty of time to talk about that.

Hickey, let's. Can we get to the other team in Pennsylvania? Because even when they win and their coach is angry, what makes Mike Tomlin happy? Do we know? Um, hmm. I don't know. I don't know either. I don't know. Working.

Working makes him happy. Maybe. He reminds me of the news anchor from Family Guy. Was it the weatherman that he just shouts stuff? It's going to rain. The weatherman. The weatherman. Yeah.

Yeah. He just shouts rain. That's like Mike Tomlin. You ask Mike Tomlin a question. He's going to yell you the answer.

He's going to make it very clear how he feels. And let me tell you this. The Steelers beat the Bengals yesterday. This was a wild game because the score was forty four to thirty eight. Not your Steelers game. I don't associate them with either score, but they came out on top.

Throw the rock around. Russell Wilson was throwing the ball all over the damn place. George Pickens came down with a score, but George Pickens also had multiple penalties. He scored. He kicked the ball into the stands.

He scored another time. He's throwing the ball at the guy on the sidelines. Listen, when George Pickens played here in Georgia, this guy was trying to fight everybody. He is twenty three years old.

I don't consider that to be a baby. George Pickens hasn't met a fight that he can just refuse. And so he's picking up penalties. He's costing the Steelers yards every single game.

He's costing them everything. And one day he's going to cost them a big game. And so after the game, Mike Tomlin, he talked about George Pickens and he said, I think what everybody's been thinking that he needs to just be an adult.

I just got to grow up, man, this emotional game, man, these divisional games are big. He got a target on his back because he's George. He understands that. But he's got to grow up. He's got to grow up and hurt.

Yeah, he has a target on his back because he's George, because everybody knows that you can get under Georgia's skin. And we know the Pittsburgh Steelers have had, unfortunately, a history of wide receivers who just. They just lose their damn minds. Antonio Brown lost it. Look, look, I don't think George Pickens is going to be Antonio Brown. There comes a point where you're just like, can you just play?

And some guys never grow up. I don't know if George Pickens is ever going to have it in him just to show up to work. And not cost the team by taunting, by throwing the ball at somebody. His own teammates, Russell Wilson, was talking to him. Kim Hayward is talking to him. Everybody's telling him, dude, just do us a favor.

Just relax. And I don't know if it'll come in time, because if he continues putting up and producing the numbers, he's going to make the money. And when he makes the money, that ego is going to grow.

I just I don't know. Picky, he's going to screw them up in a big spot. Yes, I don't trust I don't trust him like I don't trust Carson Beck. And that's that's a totally different situation.

And that's a extreme level of distrust. And I would agree, like we've been having this conversation now for how long? Right. His entire NFL career, which has been, what, three years, but even goes beyond that or before that.

George, I mean, I joined in the hedges. Right. He's punching a rival player in the head. He misses the first half of an SEC championship game because he couldn't keep his emotions in check.

And I thought the best thing for him is to fight a Georgia Tech defensive back like this is who he is. I don't think any message from Mike Tomlin, Kim Hayward, Russell Wilson, any of the veterans you just listed, well respected coaches and players. I don't think they're getting through to him. And I don't think anyone's ever going to get through to him. This is not going to be a situation where we wake up one day like, wow, George Pickens has matured. He's a totally different player. I expect these same problems and these same immature outbursts to continue the rest of this year and for the rest of his career.

Yeah. The Steelers will typically. They know when to give somebody the boot and George Pickens is is playing his way into getting the boot. And I don't know why the Steelers typically always end up with the the wide receiver that wants to lose it. Maybe it's because they think Mike Tomlin is such a great coach. The players will show up for Mike Tomlin. They want to play for him.

They'll run through a wall. I mean, would George Pickens still get this chance and opportunity if he wasn't a steal? I don't know. Is another coach going to be able to tolerate this? Let's see if things change.

I doubt it because at 23 years old, I don't think 23 is so damn young that you you know, you don't know right from wrong that you can't. Just just maintain your emotions. It's kind of pathetic. Let's see what Pickens does the rest of the way. I feel like he's really going to cost him a game.

And speaking of emotions, we got into this earlier on in the show. And thank you so much to Jerry Palm for joining us from CBS Sports. I still can't believe after all the college football upsets that we had over the weekend that Mike Tomlin, he could be angry and he can bark and he could tell you whatever he wants to about Pickens or whoever else. Hickey, did somebody call Ryan Day? Did anybody check on him? Is he OK today?

You know, that's a great question. I haven't heard anything and maybe sometimes in this case, silence is not the best thing. He was just he said that this is one of the worst things that has happened to him is outside of family stuff with his dad and health. And I'm like, whoa, like that's that's deep.

I get it. And typically a college coach or a coach in any regard will tell folks, hey, you got to move on to the next one. He is equating this loss to Michigan to a family tragedies.

And I'm like, somebody please check on Ryan Day. This is what he had to say about losing to Michigan again. No, I mean, everybody, you know, wants to win this game in the worst way, you know, and nobody wants to win it more than we do.

And it's our number one goal every year. And so when you don't do that, there's disappointment and frustration. And so, you know, I don't I don't blame anybody for being upset.

I'm upset, you know, more than anybody. Hickey, I want to he needs a hot toddy. He needs the alcohol and the tea.

He needs both. And a few. Oh, my.

We don't want him to go overboard now. All right. Two or three coming. All right.

Triple. He was also asked if there's a a mental hurdle. Like why y'all why y'all keep on losing. You are supposed to lose this one. Twenty one point favorites. Like, why do you keep losing to Michigan? I don't know. But I can just go off of this game and what's going on in this game right now. I think each game is a little bit different and unique to itself, like you said. But but the results, the results and as hard as that is to say, you know, we came up short here again today and, you know, not easy to swallow at all.

Hickey, this sounds terrible. I get it. This is after the loss. You lose to your rival again.

That's just supposed to be, you know, one in three against them. But when you're a team that all season long, you're supposed to be competing for a national championship. And we know if there's one game that matters on the schedule for everybody from Columbus, it is the game versus Michigan.

This is why that there are people calling for his job. This is the reason why the athletic director who just showed up is basically having to put out statements that we are not firing this guy. But if you're the head coach, you've got to be the one to stand there with your chin up going.

Yeah, we lost Michigan. I understand it's it's an important loss, but we got to keep our heads up and march towards the college football playoff like like we got all these coaches who tell us lies all the time. Why can't he evoke some type of confidence? He sounds defeated like the season is over because I think he knows the answer to the question about the mental hurdle. It's real and he has no answer. And then so that's why he can't fake the confidence because it truly is in his head. He no matter what he does, no matter how he thinks about it, he can't get over the Michigan hump. And that's why you hear him sound like someone who honestly sounds like they just lost someone close to them.

That's how bad it sounds. But we know when we ball things down to who's getting into the college football playoff, who still has a legitimate chance and shot. Ohio State is still one of those teams.

They're there with Texas and Oregon and Georgia. And the guy sounds like he's they put them outside and they're going to drag him over some coals. I he's he's lost. We get it. They lost. He lost. But he's taking the approach of now we are we're just defeated. I don't know. You know what?

I'm fascinated to see that come out in the playoff. Oh, they're going to lose now because he's a loser. He has he's he's admitted defeat.

You know what? Three weeks should be good or bad for him. That's a long time to think about it. Oh, he's not going to hear. He's not going to hear the end of it. He's not going to hear the end of it. He's going to he's going to sit and let this fester and rot. And just destroy him. He already sounds like a loser.

It's bad, bad all the way around. I mean, if you're going to take the the hey, the I don't want to say loser approach. But if you're going to be a coach and you want to tell some lies. Do what Eber flus did after Thanksgiving. Like that's what Ryan Day should have sounded like ignorant to the fact I screwed things up. But I believe in us.

I believe in what I did, even though I couldn't organize my team to kick a game winning field goal. Listen to Eber flus. Hey, man, did you have any regrets after you embarrassed yourself into the country on Thanksgiving? Eber flus said no.

And then he got fired. Listen to this. I like what we did there. Again, once it's under seven, you know, you're going to you're going to call, you know, time out there and actually under 12. And then really you don't have an option, you know, because it's third to fourth. You got to throw it into the end zone then. So to me, it's I think we handled it the right way.

I do believe that, you know, you just re-rack the play, get it in bounce and call time out. And that's why we held it and didn't work out the way we wanted it to. OK. And they fired him.

Here's the difference. If Ryan Day would have taken that similar approach. They wouldn't have fired him. He would have still had a job.

They would have had people mad at him, but he had people mad at him anyway. So do what most coaches do. Lie. Just go tell a lie. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network.

No lies told here. We're going to take a break when we come back. I'll give you an update on Monday night football.

What's going on between the Browns and the Broncos? We'll tell you what's rolling in Denver. Of course, at the end of the show, we'll get into a few things that took place this day in sports history. We got so much more to do.

No lies told here. The JR Sport Reshow on the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief.

It is the JR Sport Reshow here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. First time for everything, right? I appreciate everybody for listening.

I really do. Eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. That's eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. Marco Belletti will be joining us in a few minutes, giving us an update on everything going on in the world of sports. But before we do that, I'll give you a quick one.

How about this? In Denver, Colorado, right now, there's a whole lot more football left. Cleveland currently leads Denver 10 to seven. About five minutes ago here in the first half, Denver is approaching its red zone as they try to either tie or take the lead.

So we'll keep you up to date. Javonte Williams got the scoring started for Denver out of the gate with a rushing touchdown to yards. David Njoku was able to answer back with a eight yard reception, scoring reception at the end of the first. And then, well, the Browns, they were able to kick a field goal. Dustin Hopkins with a 44 yarder here in the second quarter to take this 10 to seven lead as Denver.

Oh, forget that. Damn, Hickey, they just went to what, the one yard line? Is that what they did?

Yeah. Pulling out an old play from Bo Nix's college playbook, kind of like that triple option where like you read it, then when you pull it, you think, OK, he's running and all of a sudden what do you do? Pass behind the line of scrimmage. You see that a lot in college, not much in the NFL. Sean Payton going to the college well there.

Not bad. Sean Payton, he'll still find something to be miserable about here as Bo Nix rolls in, I don't know, this flag thrown. Yeah, they're going to get a score here, whether they kick it in. Well, Hickey, Justin Tucker, he doesn't kick for the Broncos, no, right? No, no, no, no. OK. They don't have to worry about a missed field goal?

Plus the air is thinner there, so the ball travels further, maybe less cutting. Now, I get Harbaugh is not going to bench that man because you'd basically, he's just slumping right now, right? You can't bench him. This is similar to, I know you want to bench Kirk Cousins. You can't bench that guy. You can't bench Justin Tucker, right? You can't fire him.

I think you have to. Oh, my God. You just want to fire everybody. No, no.

But think about it, right? This is Super Bowl or bust for the Ravens. You have right now a guy playing MVP football in Lamar Jackson who has struggled in the postseason. When these games are tight, you're telling me that you are OK with rolling out with a guy who literally right now is the worst kicker in the league. Hickey, they're going to give him the they're going to give him, I think, at minimum, a few more games. OK, I don't think they would let this roll into the postseason. Not today, though. I mean, look, John Harbaugh gets paid right to make the tough decisions.

This is a tough decision you have to make. He did it before, by the way. Now with Justin Tucker. Go back to twenty eighteen when you had Joe Flacco, who won you a Super Bowl. He benched him for Lamar Jackson during the season.

I think there's a different psychology. You're right. He sure did. And then we never saw Flacco again. And we we saw. Well, not not not for the Ravens.

Yes, correct. They're not for the Ravens so much in some cases. What are you mad at the guy? Because he's on your team now.

Is that why? Oh, no, not his fault. But I think there's a different psychology involved in and kickers. You don't want to screw him over like that, man.

You know, just give him a break. But at what point, like to miss kicks an extra point yesterday. Right.

And a game. I mean, I think the game was the score at the end is not indicative of how much Philly dominated. I think they still win that game, whether he makes those kicks or not. Pittsburgh, though, that game a few weeks ago, you lose that game in part because he missed two field goals that are relatively easy. Like now he's already right before we even get to the playoffs. He is already with some of these kicks that you can blame a loss or two on him. He's hurting the Ravens chances of get of winning the division, which means you're gonna be on the road now for all three games of the playoffs and you're losing out on seeding possibilities. Like he's already hurt them. I think there's an understanding.

This is very these guys are fragile as he can't be so cutthroat. The Ravens are still going to make the postseason, and I think there's an acceptance of that. Do we want to allow Justin to get himself together on the pathway there or do we just want to just say, hey, man, thank you for the time. We appreciate you. We've paid you enough. Now it's time for you to pack your bags and leave. The alternative isn't necessarily better. What great kicker are you going to bring in that you're going to trust against the Buffalo Bills, against this? And I get it.

You don't trust him now, but sometimes you don't know the best option is still what you have in front of you. There's no guarantee that they just swap out Justin Tucker. And now I don't know that they bring in. I don't know, Brian Anderson or somebody from like 30 years ago, he's just going to light the world on fire. There's no guarantee of that. No, you're right.

It's absolutely crapshoot. What I'll point to or who I'll point to is the Chiefs. Harrison Bucker got hurt recently and they signed Spencer Schrader off the Jets practice squad. And then when he got hurt, they signed Matthew Wright and those two kickers.

And the last two weeks have combined ago, seven of eight for the Chiefs. Yeah, but I think it's different when a guy gets hurt. And how did he get was he helping his wife in the kitchen? How do you get her to do we know what happened? I don't know. I don't know if you know. We do not know. So you can't rule anything out.

Oh, he wouldn't be in there helping her in the first place. OK, I'm just saying I don't think so. It's just sad all the way around. You can't just hit you.

I'm surprised, man. You just want to cut fire everybody today. No, I'm not in the firing mood. I wouldn't I want to find a day.

I would I would defend him from getting fired. But you want to bench Kirk Cousins. You want Justin Tucker to be home with his family. It's tough, man. If anything, maybe I'm trying to help Lamar Jackson out now.

I'm trying to look out for his best interest. Could you again to imagine a month from now, six weeks from now, if they lose because Justin Tucker is one of three and field goals. It's going to happen. You know what? If that happens, then you're going to fire people. What?

John Harper. I'm not kidding. That's part of your special teams guy. That's part of your job.

If you feel like you don't want to embarrass a guy, not embarrassing the ego, ego, ego, ego. That's the thing. Like he has so many great kicks and so many great moments with his accuracy. Like he's probably the second best kicker of all time. It's not easy to say, you know what? Hey, we we got to move on from and it's even worse when it's in season. But don't you have to do what's best for the for the team?

And don't you owe it to the fans to give you the best chance of winning? How old is he right now? Tucker gives you the best chance. How old is Adam Vinatieri? Pushing 50 right now.

50 ish. He was. Look, he was bad at the end, too. I'll say I was advocating right.

Vinatieri go. That's right. He ended up on the Colts at the end, right? That wasn't either. And he was good for a while.

And then the last year or two, it was I got to double check. They may actually cut him in season. Where is Mort Anderson? Where's he at?

Let's get a single bar. Where is where is Mike Vanderjack? You are.

Yes, you're a guy, too. Where's he at? God.

Well, fast. Peyton, probably drink it somewhere. Where is Sebastian? What was his name?

Fat and a cow ski. Yeah. Where's he at? Drinking to probably drinking. Good for him, if that's the case. There's a reason why these kickers are drinking, man.

It's tough. Justin Tucker, what you think he's doing? You think he's watching this game right now?

I hope he's in the lab kicking. Get those get those mechanics. Maybe, you know, get the get the quad strengthened to maybe get some extra distance. You're not overcompensating. Let's ask. But you cutting you cutting Tucker right now. You told him to take a hike. No, no. Look, I understand the idea of why he's saying it. The problem is this.

The any anybody going to get off the street. The idea that they're going to be better than Tucker is 50-50 at best. And that's being I'm being generous. And the Ravens are not in a position where I feel like they're not going to make the playoffs.

Plus, you got some more time. This is to me, he's not missing because he can't. He doesn't have the leg anymore. Vinatieri at the end look like an old man who couldn't get the strength.

And it was OK. And what are you going to do? Tucker could still kick now. Yeah, it's almost like the Yips. He's too damn good. So you just got to figure out a way to get him over that. And I don't know how you get over the Yips, but that's what he has.

He's got the Yips. So I feel like you've got four or five weeks to get him right. And then you come up with a phantom injury if he's not right into the playoffs. Because no, we got to do a phantom.

You got to save you got to save face with a phantom injury. Yeah, because I don't think you're cutting him for next year. The Yips means that I feel like he can come back if at the end of three or four weeks or five weeks, whatever it is, you want to give a new guy a week or so in the regular season. Fine. But whatever it is, if you can't figure it out in four weeks, I'm not going into the playoffs with you missing kicks left and right.

But I'm not going to undress you, nor do I want to walk away from you because I think you can fix it for next year. Was he thirty four, thirty five? He's thirty five.

He's thirty five. We are going to call his injury a bruised psyche. Does that work?

Sure. Whatever you got to do to put him on IR to get another guy in that at best is going to be a crapshoot. But at least after four weeks, if he still looks this bad, I'll take the crapshoot over. Oh, man, this guy's not right. Let's let's write the story now. He was injured weeks ago and they hid the injury. And that's this is why. OK. All right. He keeps shaking his head at me like what? He's the worst kicker in the league.

He's missed eight kicks. I understand that. But it's in between his ears.

But that's the point. Like it's almost worse. It's worse than the fact that you don't know when it comes back. It's not a mechanical thing and it's not an injury. So it's like once he gets healthy or once he figures out that he's opening up his plant leg or wherever the hell you want to call it. So, yeah, it could be worse. But if he gets past it, he's right back to the guy he was.

Let's write the script now. I don't think they should cut him for the same exact same reasons that you just said, Marco. I believe in all of that, because anybody that you bring on at this point of the season, they're going to bring on some guy who's going to be out there sweating bullets anyway. So fine, whatever. Bring in a guy who's experienced, who might just be like, screw it, I'm just kicking. But I do. Not that a feeling matters.

I've had plenty of feelings in life and trust me, all of them are not good. He's going to screw them in a playoff game and I'm going to laugh because they're going to show a hard boss face. He's going to he's going to look miserable. He's going to say, oh, my God, Lamar Jackson's going to slam his helmet and I'm just going to laugh. They're going to stick with him because I think they should. But I'm going to laugh when he screws them in the postseason.

Yeah, but there's got to be a difference, though. Stick with him for the time being. Sure. Stick with him if he's still this bad.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. He'll be fine the rest of the year. And they're going to get into a big moment and we're going to see Harbaugh utter words that I cannot utter here on the radio. And then I can laugh.

It makes everybody feel better. I don't know what their offense won't get in position. There may be a miss kick here and there. They're not going to score because in the playoffs, their offense becomes way too predictable and way too easy to stop. Well, they've had issues already. Yeah.

And I don't think they're fixed. I got to be fair and I don't think it's going to be blamed on Tucker. Now you know they're going to blame Tucker. They're going to hand a ball to Derek Henry.

You say you do it and he'll be stopped because everybody knows it's coming. We could do all that. But when you lose 20 to six, are we going to blame Tucker for missing two field goals that could have made it 20 to 12?

And you could have had a chance with a one possession game late. We're going to do that. Tackle on a few more field goals.

Why are you ruining my story? I need Tucker. You're going to get it because that's because we're stupid and we're going to do that. But my point is, I think these issues go a lot further than just their kicker. I agree. But the reason why they stinking right now is the defense and the kicker. Let's put it that way there. You see what the offense does.

But damn, maybe Tucker should go play safety. He likes to tackle people, right? I've heard.

Yes. Well, maybe that was a problem. He bulked up with the new kickoff return. Maybe that's it. Ah, you lay off of the protein, huh?

Get out of the gym. What the hell are you doing? You're just a kicker.

OK, damn. Just the kicker. That's why he feels bad in the first place.

Marco, you humanize the guy a little bit. Just a little bit. And now they're just kickers. OK, ouch. There's apologies to the kickers out there. Hey, hey, we almost. Anyway, it's the J.R. sport. We show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Man, it looks like we might have had a thing just take place on Monday night football. We come back. We're going to wrap things up and share with you a few things that took place this day in sports history. You're listening to the J.R. sport brief. Back in the days when I was young, I'm not a kid anymore.

But some days I sit and wish I was a kid again. It's time for this day in sports history. You see, back in those days, we had radio and you couldn't see anything.

And it was primitive and lousy and we liked it. The J.R. sport brief show. I wish I was 50 years younger and I'd kick your ass. Well, damn it, I got one thing for you today. Let's go back to 1984, December 2nd, 1984, because one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. He set the NFL single season passing record with his thirty seven touchdown as the Raiders unfortunately beat the Dolphins for him.

Forty five to thirty four. Dan Marino had four touchdowns in this game. He ended up with forty eight touchdowns for the entire season. And unfortunately for the Dolphins and fortunately for Dan Marino. This man went to the Super Bowl that one time against the Niners and that was all she wrote. Listen to this game altering, record breaking touchdown. This was his thirty seventh courtesy of NBC. The third and goal from the four yard line. Marino looking for the record.

And it is there. There it is. Thirty seven touchdown passes for Dan Marino. And Jimmy Cefalu has the honor of giving it to the quarterback. Twenty three year old Dan Marino has just broken the record shared by two Hall of Famers. George Landa and YA Tittle. As he said, I never saw Tittle play.

I saw Landa kick. I never saw him throw a pass when I was a kid. Dan Marino.

He's only twenty three. Yeah, man. Sometimes you never know.

You go there early. You may never go back. I'm thinking about him in the Super Bowl. Sorry, Dan Marino. And since then, yes, some guy named Peyton Manning showed up with a busted neck in 2013. He now holds the record for most touchdown passes thrown in a year. Fifty five. You might recall fifty five with the Denver Broncos.

At least he walked away with one. Right. That's nice. Yeah. That's something that took place this day in sports history.

Good for Dan Marino. Also, speaking of history, this is weird history because everybody is just shooting threes like it's nothing. James Harden last night with the Clippers beating the Denver Nuggets. James Harden has joined Steph Curry as the only two guys, only two men in NBA history with more than three thousand threes made. Steph Curry has a thirty eight hundred. James Harden has three thousand. To be specific, James Harden now has three thousand four threes. Steph Curry has three thousand eight hundred and ten and counting. When Steph Curry is done, if his ankles and legs hold up, he's going to be the only guy in NBA history who has four thousand threes. And then some guy named Ray Allen doesn't even have three thousand two thousand nine hundred seventy three. They're just just just jacking them up.

That's it. A matter of fact, he had listened to listen to James Harden talk about this feat. I don't know how much of a feat it is when he's just launching like, I don't even know, ten a game. James Harden, he reacts to knocking down his three thousand. Listen, none of those, you know, accomplishments that we never take for granted, just the amount of work that I put in countless days and nights where I put the work in.

And a lot of people don't see it, but the results happen. So just thankful. Hickey, he is an excellent player. He is an amazing player. Unfortunately, he was a shot jacker in too many times when it was unnecessary.

Couldn't get it done in the big moments. But I think a player like him who didn't rely or still, I'm talking about like he's done, doesn't rely on athleticism is very smart. I don't know if he gets it when he's done. I guess he'll get the respect that he deserves. He's an excellent shooter. I think he's been one of the best passers in the game for the past decade. People don't give him credit for that just based on his scoring acumen when he was with the Rockets. It's just the big moments in some of the attitude stuff, especially in Brooklyn, Houston, throwing players under the bus.

That'll do him in. Yeah, I know. I agree. And that's it's kind of the NBA equivalent of Kirk Cousins in a way. I think Harden's a better player than Kirk is and his numbers are better. But like Kirk every year, right, when he's healthy and on like he's throwing thirty five touchdowns, you know, thirty five hundred for forty five hundred passing yards. Like he's up there near the top of, you know, the quarterback stats every single year. But no one ever considers him a great quarterback. No one ever looks at him that way or even maybe gives him the respect he deserves in part because every time the postseason comes.

Right. What happens with Kirk? Shrinks, struggles in the big game. Same thing happens with James Harden. We're in a you know, I don't know if it's an era.

I don't know if this is what I've dissipated. This is now just the new reality for the rest of time with sports. But we're in an era, at least right now, where it's like truly championship robust.

What have you done in the biggest games? That's what people value the most. And that's where Harden has struggled the most in his career, which is why, like you said, the numbers are great. But no one ever really looks at him as an all time great in part because they look at the postseason first and foremost.

And look at him going, you know, three of 18 from the field and said, oh, James Harden, no good. He has he has his MVP. He doesn't have the playoff success. He has his triple doubles. He has a scoring titles All-Star. I just I remember when he threw his team under the bus in Houston and just said, hey, we don't have to play as good enough. And that's basically exactly what came out of his mouth.

And that was just like, whoa, never, never forget that. But he's a he's a great player. Let's see what he does the rest of his career.

Probably nothing. How about this Monday night football? Hey, Cleveland bounced back. David and Joe who just caught a touchdown pass. Another one from Jamis Winston.

Denver now leads at halftime, 21 to 17. And on that note, we'll have to chat with you about it tomorrow. But Bart Winkler will take you the rest of the way. The J.R. sport we show you on the Infinity Sports Network. It's done. Thank you so much to Jerry Palm for joining us.

If you've missed a minute or second, you hit rewind on the free Odyssey app. Find me online everywhere at J.R. sport. Briefly will return tomorrow.

Six p.m. Eastern three Pacific. You be safe. You be well. You be cool. You be smooth. The J.R. sport we show is done. Bart Winkler coming up next. Thank you so much to Ryan Hickey. Hey, I'm going to sit down and watch some more football. Thank you. Thank you, everybody.