We got more football coming up. Wildcard weekend continues. It finishes up on Monday night football. We got the Vikings and the Rams.
We'll talk about that. The Dallas Cowboys, well, they don't have a head coach. What a shock. Mike McCarthy out, gone. Contract expires, so we'll talk about whether or not he formally got the boot. People are mad at Mike Tomlin going to the playoffs and losing again. Mike Vrabel is here as the new head coach of the New England Patriots. What a shock.
Not a shock at all. Hey, we got the college football championship. All set.
How about that? We got Ohio State and Notre Dame. And man, we got a lot to get into. To talk about Mike Tomlin and the Steelers, Mike DeFabo from The Athletic is going to come through and join us next hour. As I mentioned, I'm in Atlanta. Thank you to Super Producer and host Ryan Hickey in New York City. Thank you for listening wherever you might be on the free Odyssey app, on your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate, Sirius XM Channel 158, on a smart speaker where you can ask it to play the Infinity Sports Network. And shout outs to everybody watching.
Yes, you heard me. Everybody watching on our live YouTube stream. You can now stream this show. Just go to the YouTube channel of the Infinity Sports Network and boom, we pop right on up. You can find me online. I'm on the Internet at JR Sport Brief. It's everywhere.
All social media platforms. And if you want to call up, you can do that, too. The phone number here is real simple. It's 855-212-4227.
It's 855-212-4227. We got a lot to get into. Man, this is the best time of the football calendar. We got the championship coming up in college. We got the playoffs going on in the NFL. We already got a great matchup this coming weekend between the Buffalo Bills and the Baltimore Ravens.
So no better time to be a football fan. So we got a lot to talk about before I do anything else. Hickey, how are you, man? Did you have a good weekend?
I did. It was spent watching mostly playoff football, which is a lot of fun and pretty exciting for the most part. So it's a good weekend. Good weekend.
I can say the same thing. Just tons of football as it. Nothing else to do.
It's freezing cold outside. Atlanta was frozen. So nothing better to do than sit down and watch all this football. But let's get this out the way, because Jerry Jones has done it again to the shock of probably absolutely nobody. Mike McCarthy is no longer the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. This man's contract was expiring.
He was basically a lame duck all the way through last season and through this year. And despite Dak Prescott ripping up his leg and having to watch Cooper rush and all the other injuries, the Dallas Cowboys somehow, some way still went seven and 10. They really didn't add anybody in the off season. If you want to think about the biggest name that they added, you could dare I say. The Ezekiel Elliott, like that was the biggest name that they added. And where the hell did that get them? And so Mike McCarthy was basically coaching on a shoestring budget this past season. Still ended up with seven wins. And Jerry Jones is big them up, talked about how great of a coach he is and then ultimately still let him go. It's been reported that they could not come to terms.
On a contract extension, the length on a contract extension, are you shocked? This is Jerry Jones. Yeah, this man out here just coaching on.
On a whim, knowing that he was unlikely to come back and knowing he was unlikely to return. I mean, you had more justification last year after they went to the playoffs and got smashed by the Green Bay Packers. And so Mike McCarthy moves on. The Dallas Cowboys move on.
Jerry Jones is going to be out here looking for his ninth head coach since he took over the team in 1989. This is the world that we live in. It's Jerry's world.
And we all just have to get used to it. A matter of fact, take a take a listen to this. Tom Pellissaro was on the NFL Network earlier today, and he basically described why the hell the Dallas Cowboys and Mike McCarthy are going in two different directions.
Listen to this. Last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, the Cowboys, Jerry Jones specifically, and Mike McCarthy had a lot of different conversations. They talked about the 2024 season in which they dealt with a slew of injuries. They also talked about the future and how they would move forward. When those conversations wrapped up on Thursday, the plan was for Jerry Jones and Mike McCarthy's agent Don Yee to have conversations about a contract.
And while there was contact and there were conversations, there's a difference between talks and negotiations. There was never any real momentum on the business side for something to get done in terms of a new contract for Mike McCarthy. And so what I was told late this morning is that the sides could not agree specifically on the length of a contract. And now they are set to part ways. It's the most Dallas Cowboys thing ever.
That's it. Like, why the hell did it take almost two weeks to come to this conclusion? It basically went up to the deadline where he would be a free agent. So now Mike McCarthy, people are going to look at him and go, wow, yeah, he went 12 and five a bunch of seasons, three consecutive seasons for the Dallas Cowboys. Why can't he do that for us? You know, there's a lot of rumors about why doesn't he just go back up to the NFC North and coach, you know, a team that he opposed many times, like the Chicago Bears. You know, why doesn't he go down to New Orleans and help fix that situation? Ian Rappaport, he was on the NFL Network and he said, oh, yeah, those are some of the options.
Of course they are. Dallas, as you mentioned, just never could put forth the commitment to show him you are our guy. So it probably is best to move forward. So I expect the New Orleans Saints to Chicago Bears to have real and serious interest in McCarthy as they should. Yeah, well, Mike McCarthy has to go somewhere where he can maybe fix a quarterback. Caleb Williams. Yeah, I think that's be better than going down to New Orleans to coach Carr, who's currently complaining about his contract and letting everybody know I'm not giving these saints no break, not restructuring nothing.
I'm keeping all my money. New Orleans Saints are a waste of time. If I was Mike McCarthy, I wouldn't entertain it unless I just needed a job.
And quite frankly, I think most of us need a job. And here's the situation with the Cowboys, Mike McCarthy will figure things out and we'll see what happens. Jerry Jones is here again. He let another coach just kind of twist out there in the wind. Sorry, Jason Garrett. Now, Mike McCarthy is gone after five years. And what have the Dallas Cowboys accomplished in that time?
Nothing. We had Jerry Jones tell us last week, two weeks ago, nobody else could be the GM of the Dallas Cowboys, but him that he bought the team to run the team. He didn't buy the team for it to be an investment. Jerry Jones might as well go down there and coach himself. I mean, we hear all the names about who could join the Dallas Cowboys, who's going to go forth and coach the Dallas Cowboys. Deion Sanders is going to leave Colorado to coach the Cowboys. Bill Belichick is going to turn his back on North Carolina after being there a month. And Bill Belichick is going to go coach the Cowboys, a 10 million dollar buyout be damned.
I got to be honest. It doesn't matter who coaches the Cowboys because the man running the Dallas Cowboys is a complete nut. I mean, you might as well go get Rex Ryan to run the Cowboys unless the stupid ass New York Jets decide to bring them in themselves. Dallas Cowboys are doomed. And I hate to say, Jerry Jones is 82 years old.
At what point in time does he wake up and say, you know what? I think somebody else is better and more equipped to help run this team than I am. You just gave Dak Prescott 60 million dollars just paying CD lamb. You got no run game. You got to retool the offensive line. You got to you got to you got to pay Micah.
This is just a disaster. But somehow, some way, I guess because it is the Dallas Cowboys, somebody is always going to sign up to be tortured. He and Rappaport, he said that the Dallas Cowboys job is desirable. And I would expect the Dallas Cowboys to have a really, really coveted opening with a bunch of really good players and a little bit of cap space and some things to handle. But it is the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. So, you know, I would say Kellen Moore is certainly a name to watch. Familiar with the Cowboys. There's going to be others.
And, you know, the fact that this is open now, the fact that they are ready to win with the infrastructure there, I would say makes this as good a job as there is open right now, Tom. Oh, my goodness. Oh, that that's that's wrong.
That's wrong. Yeah, I'm sure the Dallas Cowboys can get their hands on one of the the younger new hot shot coaches. Kellen Moore, offensive coordinator.
He's been in the building. He can come back. Jerry Jones needs somebody he can boss around. Jerry Jones needs somebody that he could just go ahead and just push all the buttons.
He needs another head coach to bring in that he could just let twist in the wind when things don't go right. Because Jerry Jones is the face of the Dallas Cowboys and he bought it. He's right. He could do whatever the hell he wants with it. Just because he bought something doesn't mean he knows how to use it. How many people, you know, go to Home Depot and buy fancy tools and don't know what the hell to do with it? How many people you've seen? You've seen this, right? Have you ever seen somebody online? They buy some fancy car.
They don't know what the hell to do with it and ends up crashing. You ever seen that? Thankfully, not in person, but yes. Yeah.
Well, thank God not in person. Hopefully never. Jerry Jones has a toy. The Dallas Cowboys are a toy for this man. And everybody talks about the Dallas Cowboys. It's been almost 30 years.
Let me say it again. It's been almost 30 years since they won a championship. 30. New York Yankee fans complain they haven't won a title since 2009. It is 2025.
The Dallas Cowboys got to go back further than that. Damn. And you think something's going to change over the next?
I don't know. Is picky Jerry Jones going to run this team for another 20 years? Unlikely, right? I mean, with that diet he has, it could be another 30, 40 years. He seems invincible. That diet, that McDonald's diet is keeping him alive. I think so. Oh, my God.
Prolonged his life expectancy. Do you think that the Dallas Cowboys job is attractive? You think it's attractive? I don't know. Because the head coach is a yes man, right? Like you can't do anything. Jerry's calling the shots. Like you just said, Jerry's the GM.
He's not giving that duty up. So whatever players you want in for agency in the draft, if Jerry doesn't want them, you're not getting them. If Jerry wants you to coach a certain way, well, guess what? You're coaching a certain way.
That's why I don't think like anyone worth their salt. That's like an actual head coaching candidate. Ben Johnson. I know Mike Vrabel's of the Patriots. Let's just pretend Mike Vrabel's available. Like any good head coach out there.
They'd be stupid to take this job because you're not coaching. Yeah, it's going to be some. I don't want to call this. Let me choose my words carefully. They got to kiss this guy's ass.
OK, that's it. Who the hell wants to coach a team where the owner is talking after every game? Who the hell wants to coach a team where the owner is a radio star and a celebrity doing like two and three appearances a week? Who the hell wants to coach a team where the owner can't get out of his own damn way and actually allow you to do your job? The Dallas Cowboys job isn't desirable unless you want to sign up to be chief ass kisser. Now, if this is your first time NFL head coach, then yes, sure, you'll do it. You'll sign up for it.
And maybe you can look good in the process. But everybody who's ever tried to work with Jerry Jones somehow, some way. It hasn't worked out.
Go ask Bill Parcells, one of the greatest coaches ever. How did that work out? He just finished up with Mike McCarthy. How did that work out? Just twisting in the wind for an entire year. Oh, he actually liked Jason Garrett, kept him around for a very long time.
How did that work out? This is the same old, same old. This is like a sitcom. Dallas Cowboys are nothing but a bad television show. Stuck in reruns because the guy running the team is arrogant, old and wealthy.
If you want to work for Jerry Jones and get your chapstick ready. It's the J.R. sport we show you with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven.
That's eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. We even heard ridiculousness over the weekend. Oh, well, Mike Tomlin. Oh, gee, he should go coach for the Cowboys.
Now, that's not a load of crap. If I ever heard it, we'll talk about Mike Tomlin next hour with Mike DeFabo. He'll join us courtesy of the athletic. We're going to talk about tonight's last divisional or excuse me, last wild card game for the weekend between Minnesota and Los Angeles. Remember, that game is taking place in Arizona due to the fires in California. We got a lot to do. We'll talk about some of the matchups and games that took place over this weekend. We'll talk about some college playoff action. We know that the championship game is all set for a week from now.
We have a lot to do. And a matter of fact, speaking of Mike Vrabel, he was introduced today as the head coach of the New England Patriots. Now, if that was not the world's biggest shock or surprise, matter of fact, we'll hear from Mike Vrabel on the other side of the break. It's the J.R. sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the J.R. sport brief. It is the J.R. sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network.
We open up the show by talking about Mike McCarthy, no longer head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. Contract is over. Contract expired. No new contract. Reportedly, he wanted a longer deal. And of course, the Dallas Cowboys did not want that because Jerry Jones needs to be in charge.
And so now he'll find somebody else that he can pretty much go out there and undermine. Dallas Cowboys job, not one that I would be jumping into right now. Meanwhile, in the world's worst kept secret, Mike Vrabel was hired as New England Patriots head coach over the weekend. Did anybody have any doubt that this is how this was going to end up for the New England Patriots? I mean, they dumped Gerard Mayo last week when the game ends about an hour after the regular season comes to a close. Mike Vrabel has just been sitting out the entire year. Picky, what do you think he was doing? Just watching football and being on vacation? What do you think the hell this guy was doing?
I think so. I mean, how was he just spending it, right? That sounds like the life. He had a year off, just minding his business, waiting to see what jobs opened up. And the biggest job opened up.
A job where he played for years, where he cracked skulls and beat people up, won three Super Bowl championships. Mike Vrabel is home. And Gerard Mayo has to listen to, you know, terrible stories about how he was playing cards with his players and terrible with the media and what have you.
And it was all good just a year ago. Couldn't wait to have him in. He was the coach in waiting.
And now he doesn't have a job. I don't know if Gerard Mayo is going to be an assistant head coach somewhere. I don't know if he's going to get a chance to be a coordinator. I guess hanging out with Bill Belichick, not all that qualified at this point in time. But Vrabel has the job. And he was introduced to the media in New England earlier today. He's already in a team's ring of honor.
They know who the hell he is. And now they got a good head coach. This is someone in Mike Vrabel who's won coach of the year. He helped Mike Tannehill, or Ryan Tannehill, excuse me, get to the postseason. Yeah, they rolled the back of Derrick Henry.
Now, this is a good job. Robert Kraft is not going to bother this man. Mike Vrabel is going to do what the hell he wants to do. Because Mike Vrabel is a good coach. The reason why he doesn't have a job is because the Tennessee Titans are a bunch of idiots.
They're run by a person who was just gifted the team because her father had passed away. And Mike Vrabel, he spoke to the media today. We know his biggest job is to reestablish New England Patriots culture. Right.
Whatever the hell that means. Tom Brady and Belichick are both gone. Mike Vrabel, he talked about how he's going to build a winning culture for a team that only won four games this past season.
Listen to this. One thing I've realized about culture is that you can find out what your culture looks like when your family, your business or your team is at its low point. It's not when you're winning Super Bowls or it's not when you're 7-1 or 10-1. Because then everybody's waving towels and everybody's happy and they're excited to come to work. But when you get hit in the mouth or you're down or the chips are against you, then you can take a snapshot of what your company or your team looks like.
And then you'll find out what kind of culture you have. Damn, that's why he's not with the Titans anymore. The Titans were stinking a joint up.
It wasn't his fault. They didn't have any talent. Right now, you can take a look at this New England Patriots team. And for the most part, with a four and 13 record, New England Patriots don't have no talent.
One thing that they do have, which I guess and I don't I don't guess I know this is attractive for Mike Vrabel or anybody. They got a quarterback. They got Drake May, who this past season when he actually got the reins through 15 touchdowns, 10 interceptions.
And he's going to continue to improve, especially as they start to protect them. And more importantly, get him some weapons for him to throw the ball to. So Mike Vrabel understands the situation. I don't think he's going to work a miracle and turn the Patriots into contenders next year.
But I think they'd be better than four wins. This is what Mike Vrabel had to say about fixing or helping Drake May improve following his rookie year. Trying to develop him as a leader of the offense. And when that quarterback, you know, when they call the play, you want to say, like, everybody's going to believe that it's going to score a touchdown. Like with that type of emphasis on how everything is going to operate. And, you know, Drake is going to be his own person, but I'm going to give him some things that I feel like are necessary to help us win football games.
Oh, man. People talk about Mike Vrabel like he runs this place or he runs any place he goes with like an iron fist. And he has. And he's had results and he's won.
I think he's one of the best coaches in the entire NFL. And so if you've been hating the New England Patriots for the past 20 years. Twenty five years. Yeah, things have been dark. Things have been ugly. The departure of Tom Brady.
What happens after that? The departure of Bill Belichick. You had a disaster this past season with Gerard Mayo, knowing that this was going to be a full transition.
It's real simple now. Things are going to change. I wouldn't be shocked if in a few years, a season or two, the New England Patriots are just is back in business. They don't got no real opposition in the AFC East outside of the Buffalo Bills.
The Miami Dolphins are a joke. You have Tyree kill running around right now telling everybody he wants to leave, but he doesn't want to leave. His agent says he's passionate. Oh, he played this year with a broken wrist.
Ah, whatever. Tyree kill is on borrowed time. And so is to a tongue of a low. OK. To is just we all know, unfortunately, he's one hit away from being out of commission and the Dolphins are soft. Who cares about them? And then you have the New York Jets. Hickey word association, I say New York Jets and you say what dumpster fire.
Oh, my God. Yeah, dumpster fire. They are correct. They got no coach, have no quarterback, have no GM, no common sense. Am I missing anything, Hickey? Did I hit all the boxes?
I think you checked them all in this case. The New York Jets should just bring back Rex Ryan for the hell of it. Just just to keep things entertaining, because it's like the Jets aren't they're not interested in winning games. I feel like the New York Jets are interested in winning headlines. And so if you have Mike Rabel, you don't got to do nothing but really take a look at the Buffalo Bills and just go, OK, it's us and them.
The New England Patriots are going to turn things around. And what about their old head coach? What is Bill Belichick? How does he feel about his former player taking over his old job? Well, you don't have to worry or think about it because Bill Belichick was on Pat McAfee and he pretty much said this is a good move.
I like this move is good, is good, is good. Mike is a good guy. I think Mike's done a great job. Certainly his entry into coaching was no surprise to any of us that knew him. And, you know, I coach with the coach at New England. You know, I talked to him when he was at Ohio State and then when he went to the Texans and then, of course, at Tennessee and we practice against them and, you know, stay in pretty close contact with Mike. So I have a ton of respect for Mike.
I think he does a great job. He prepares his teams well. They're very good in situational football. They're tough.
They're competitive. They're smart, just like he was as a player. The teams that he's coached and the position he's coached follow very much in his playing style and in his preparation style. So, you know, I love Mike. I love everything that he stands for as a football coach. And, you know, I have a lot of respect for him. I'm sure he'll do a great job.
Here's a here's a here's an important question. When Bill Belichick actually gets to coaching North Carolina. Vicki, is he going to be as vocal as he is now? Is he going back into Patriots mode?
Bill Belichick? Is he going to be somewhere in the middle? He has to meet him in the middle. It's college. I think you nailed it.
I think he has to be somewhere in the middle because he still is right. Auditioning basically himself every time he talks to potential recruits, to potential players in the transfer portal. I get he can have the experience to just say, I'm Bill Belichick, come play for me. But it is almost an audition.
So you can't just be grumpy because players are kind of forced to come there or you give them the most money. I think we'll get a little bit better. Bill Belichick, Belichick, and he's not going to berate. Well, he never berated anybody. He's not going to be a jackass to a student media member, right? He's not going to be sitting at a press conference and you stare in the holes into some 20 year old, right?
No, no, no. He will not be like Coach K or Jim Boeheim. He will not be Jim Boeheim. What do you think Jim Boeheim is doing? Is he taking a nap right now? His quarterly hourly nap? I don't know. He's probably on his front porch begging someone to walk on a sidewalk or his lawn to yell, get off my lawn. No doubt about it. You think he's up in New York or you think he's in like Florida somewhere?
I would think Florida. You know, you've been in the cold New York winters for so long. Got to get out of there. Yeah.
Angry, angry coaches. I like this warm, kinder Belichick. He seems happy, too. Hickey, I think it's the young lady. I think it is.
Then you know what? Maybe we'll see a different bill starting on the sidelines. Maybe he's got his mojo back.
He has his mojo. If she ever leaves that man, it's going to be hell to pay for all of those students. Let's put it that way.
Oh, I hope that's never the case. Congratulations to Vrabel. What a shock. Mike Vrabel back to the Pats. He was just doing due diligence. He wasn't going to none of these other teams. He's back where he played.
He's back where he's in a ring of honor. He's just perfect combination. It's like peanut butter and jelly. And he's a damn good coach. Like I said, if you hate the Patriots, get used to it. They're going to get better sooner than later. They got a coach. They got a quarterback. Now they just got to fill out the roster.
I think it'll get done. Eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. That's eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven.
Phone lines are open if you want to give me a holler. We're going to take a break when we come back on the other side. I told you that there is one team, one team that Mike Vrabel has to worry about in the AFC East. It is the Buffalo Bills, the New England Patriots. We won't see them play again until later this year.
But the Buffalo Bills, they got a big old game over the weekend against the Ravens after a big old win yesterday against the Broncos. We're going to talk about that on the other side of the break. Eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. You are listening to the J.R. sport brief. It is the J.R. sport brief show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. This portion of the show is brought to you by Ethos Life. The easy way to get life insurance in 10 minutes up to two million dollars in coverage with no medical exam. Just a few health questions. You can get your free quote at check Ethos dot com.
Not available in all the states. We talked about I don't want to call it the firing of Mike McCarthy, but a parting of ways. The Dallas Cowboys don't extend his contract. We talked about Mike Vrabel being introduced formally as the head coach of the New England Patriots today.
Not a shock, not a surprise whatsoever. And then joining us next hour, we'll be joined by Mike Defabo, who covers the Steelers for the athletic. We'll talk about everything going on with Mike Tomlin. I can't believe people still want to get rid of this guy. It's just just angry fans, I assume, on on Twitter. Let's get to the phone lines.
Eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. And then I want to talk about some of the football that we did see over the weekend. We saw some great performances. The Buffalo Bills and the Ravens advanced to play each other.
That should be a fun one. We saw the elevation of a great rookie quarterback. Jayden Daniels continues to look good.
So we got a lot to do. But let's talk to Jeremy. He's calling up from Maryland. Hey, Jeremy, you're on the J.R. sport.
Show us on your mind. I think that Mike Vrabel hire for New England is the best is the best thing. He's a New England guy.
People love him in New England. The only thing I the only thing I hope that doesn't happen is this. His legacy somehow would get ruined if things don't pan out. I don't think Mike Vrabel will. Mike Vrabel will allow that to happen, but that's the only thing that I worry about, like a hometown guy coming back and things not panning out. I think I think he'll be fine.
Legacy. He has to. He's probably going to build up more of a legacy coach in the New England Patriots than anything that he ever did with Tennessee. I mean, he had he had an average team with a superstar running back and he squeezed and got everything out of them. I think I expect the opposite. I think he's going to bolster his legacy and he's probably going to be there for a long ass time.
What else you got? But also see, like he's kind of like a Mike Tomlin kind of guy. He's he's a player's type of coach. He can make his guys perform. People don't understand that Mike Tomlin is a player's type of coach where he can he'll get things out of you. He's not like he's not a Bill Cower, but he's he's he wants to keep things in house. He's not one of the media things of that nature. I think that's why the Bernie liking people in Pittsburgh need to relax.
I mean, this guy's one. I don't know if the Rudy's will renew his contract, but the Bernie's are going to fire him. I mean, they extended his contract last year. So there's no worry. I also believe he has a no trade in his contract. And I agree with you, Jeremy.
I got no problem. I got no issues with Mike Tomlin. I think if you take most coaches and you give them the roster that he's had in the quarterback states that he's had, you ain't you ain't getting on. You're not even making it to the postseason. So people want to make it a negative that, oh, Mike Tomlin wins in the regular season or now Mike Tomlin stinks in the postseason. Damn it. Another coach wouldn't even get them this far. OK, just relax. It's not always so easy. Just, you know, finding the next Hall of Fame quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger sitting on his ass doing his footballing podcast.
All right. He ain't coming back. Eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven.
That's eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. Brandon is calling up from Myrtle Beach. You on the J.R. sport re-show. What's up, Brandon? What's going on, J.R.? Man, big fan of the show.
Big fan of the show. I would just call him because if you are a Ravens fan right now, you are really ecstatic of the way that the Steelers play on Saturday, because usually we know when the two teams play, somebody is getting hurt on either side. Somebody is getting hurt in the Steelers play so soft that the Ravens were actually able to walk away. No injuries for the next game.
And that's another thing. When they play it so physical that next game, even if you do win, you're nervous because someone got hurt. But the Steelers had no fight. And so they really helped the Ravens out in two ways, J.R. OK, you want to share or are you stopping there? Oh, I'm stopping there because I'm excited. I'm excited because now we have to go and face the bills. And now when it did what it did, it gave us more confidence to go ahead and play the bills. No injuries, maybe Zay's coming back. And so I'm just sending out a big thank you card to the Steelers fans. OK, a little bit of a warm up.
Thank you, Brandon, for calling for Myrtle Beach. And yes, that's going to be a good matchup. That's going to be a good game.
It's almost like an AFC title match that we're getting in the divisional round. Earlier this year, the Ravens beat the Bills 35 to 10 in week four of the regular season. If you can go back far enough, I know a lot of Ravens fans don't want to remember this, but back in 2020, the Buffalo Bills eliminated the Ravens. I believe that was a game where Lamar had the concussion. I mean, there was a lot that went on in 2020 that I'd like to forget.
I think that was one of the things. And meanwhile, the Buffalo Bills, they have not lost a home game all season long. We saw what they did to the Broncos yesterday, routed them. The Bills did 31 to seven. James Cook, 120 yards. Quite frankly, he doesn't get a lot of the credit that he deserves in most cases. And Josh Allen, he pretty much said as much.
Listen to this. Our offensive line did a great job of getting looks that we liked and taking advantage of it. And they moved guys off the ball today. Jimbo ran the ball hard. All of our backs run the ball hard.
And then you incorporate some of the quarterback run stuff. And I think that that really messes with the defense of, you know, they were in a really good position sometimes. And our guys just made plays, you know, and that's why we got so much faith in everybody in this room. Yeah, they ran the Broncos off the field. I mean, after scoring that touchdown early, Broncos had nothing. They were blitzed the rest of the way, 31 to nothing.
It was not a competitive game. You take a look at Bo Nix, 144 yards passing to go along with one touchdown. The Buffalo Bills, they just run everybody off the field. And I don't think they're going to do it against the Ravens.
We'll talk more about that later on this week. But after the slow start right out the gate, Sean McDermott is like, hey, I'm proud of my guys. I'm proud of them.
We knew it was going to be a battle and it was. They're a well-coached team, a lot of talent. I thought our players played extremely well, especially in the third and fourth quarter, and played good complementary football.
Took care of the ball. The line of scrimmage was the way it needed to be for us, for us to win. And that's an important facet for us every week. We got to wait a week for this game. It's Sunday, Sunday. We got to wait until Sunday night.
This is a big one, man. I'm not going to completely hit the fast forward button, but whoever wins this game is likely going to take on the Chiefs in the AFC Championship game. No disrespect to the Texans, but that's likely what's going to happen.
And so we say this all the time. Eventually, somebody, somebody else in the AFC has to knock off Patrick Mahomes. Is it going to be Josh Allen? Is it going to be Lamar Jackson? Let's also keep in mind that these two are pretty much or have were battling it out for who was going to walk away with the MVP in a few weeks. I'm excited for this one.
Here's a difference. Ravens have Lamar Jackson. And Derrick Henry, we saw Derrick Henry lose his mind yesterday. One hundred and eighty six yards rushing to go along with two touchdowns.
The guy is a beast. Lamar Jackson says, man, watching this guy with the ball is like looking at a train. It looked like a movie clip. You know, when I'm a gift, cars, you watch the movie Cars? A little bit too old to watch Cars. But anyway, for kids. I was and I was a kid when I watch kids. I was a kid when I watch Cars. That's all I'm saying. But, you know, when when Lightning McQueen just flying, flashing past and then it's like, that's how Derrick look.
He was running past and all those guys just look like a movie, bro. I'm not going to lie to you. But I'd rather be watching it than being on the other side of the ball. I know that.
Ain't nobody trying to stop that, man. I know my well, of course, I know my answer. I have never seen Cars. I know it's the red car and I've never seen it. Have you seen the movie Cars? I have. Oh, boy. Oh, boy.
Man, why? Well, I was kind of like Lamar. I was younger when it came out. I was probably, I don't know, like that movie's old. It's probably 15 years old.
So I was probably around 15. Oh, I thought it was a recent movie like. Well, they had like Cars five come out. I've not seen Cars two, three, four, five, six, seven. Yeah, I saw the original Lightning McQueen for sure.
He has a good movie. Oh, my goodness. Wow. Yeah, I'm behind eight ball on this one. Two thousand six was the first time it came out. Yeah, I was.
I make sense. I was about 12 years old. Yeah, 11 years old. Yeah. All right. Well, I thought this came out like five years ago.
What do I know? I didn't know it was a franchise. Cars franchise. Oh, big time.
In 2006, 2011, 2017. They did a Plains spinoff. Did you know that? No. Plains is a animated sports comedy film. OK. All right. The Plains Fire and Rescue. Yeah.
They haven't made one since 2017, so maybe the cars are done. I don't know. Wow. Thank you, Lamar Jackson, for the analogy that Lamar Jackson taught me something today. Cars.
OK. Eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. That's eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. Let's go to Pennsylvania and talk to Ed. Ed, you're on the J.R. Sportbreeze show. What's up?
Hey, J.R., thanks for taking my call. I wanted to get my take on Tomlin. I've been waiting for Tomlin.
I mean, I'm not a Stewart fan, but I live in Pennsylvania and I've been waiting for Tomlin to be gone for quite some time. You said about the roster, about any other coach would be worse off with the roster. But Tomlin put the roster together. So that's his average mediocre roster construction. I just the last time I ran to go the last time I checked, the GM was Khan and the last time I looked in order to get your hands on a good quarterback. You've got to be real bad.
That's something he hasn't been able to do. I mean, good quarterbacks don't necessarily get loose into free agency. And if you take a look at all the teams that are now flourishing with younger quarterbacks, they were ass.
They were they were terrible. The New England Patriots had to lose Brady. Washington just got their hands on a quarterback.
The Bears were bad before they got Caleb. This man hasn't let the head disappear. He didn't want he didn't want to listen to my points. What happened? What happened? Why do you want to say is his piece and run away?
Oh, my goodness. Like I didn't I didn't know Mike Tomlin put the whole team together. You think Mike Tomlin had had a choice? This man had fields and he had Wilson. And in order to at least at least have some type of threat of throwing the football, he had to go ahead and put Russell Wilson out there and sort of talk about the guy.
Oh, these are his mediocre rosters. Well, tell me what what are the New England Patriots doing since Tom Brady left? OK, Hickey, I hate to ask you, but what the hell have the Colts done? There's Peyton Manning left and another guy decided to quit and retire because he was peeing blood. Mr. Luck, you need a quarterback to go out and win, man. So you got to get real bad before you get good. And so I guess it's the the gift and a curse.
Mike Tomlin needs to have a bad, terrible year. Is that the solution, Nicky? I don't know.
I'm with a lot of the mob. I think he's got to go. Oh, no. I think there's been a ceiling.
I think that he does have a lot of influence. And I think like the Steelers, I think, are in the worst spot in sports. Stuck in the middle. Yeah, they're good enough to barely make the playoffs most years, but they get blown off the field. And like you said, they're not bad enough to get a top pick to get a quarterback. So it feels like you're spinning your wheels because you're stuck in the middle.
Most years you make it chores a six or seven seed. You lose by 14 points, you get run off the field, then you kind of run it back next year and do the same thing over and over again. It does feel like something's got to give. There's something it has to give is them potentially having a bad year.
That said, because you you really venture into the great unknown. If you tell Mike Tomlin, take a hike. And the Steelers won't do that because they have something that's good. Good, old, reliable. It's like you got something that works.
I don't think that fit the ceiling. I think they got to add talent. It's not easy coming off of Ben Roethlisberger. It's the J.R. Sportbrie show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Hey, we're going to talk about one of those good young quarterbacks on the other side of the break. Mike DeFable is going to join us from the athletic to talk Steelers.
We have so much more to do. It's the J.R. Sportbrie show on the Infinity Sports Network.
