The 49ers Are NOT Tanking

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That's CozyEarth.com slash Spotify. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Round one, fight.

And the Michigan Wolverines will shock the college football world. They gotta learn how to lose, man. You can't be fighting this stuff. From the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.

Fight. Oh my, that'll be Al Shire who's flagged for the big hit on the slide and that's going to start a little bit of a scrum afterwards. Earlier on the show, Pro Football Hall of Famer, Charles Woodson.

Coming up, complete week 13 recap, latest news, and more. And now, it's Rich Eisen. That's right, our number two of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air.

844-204-RICH is the number to dial. There's so many different ways to have a conversation with us and we always appreciate everybody that's reaching out here on the show. Charles Woodson is making his way to Los Angeles International Airport. He was kind enough to fly, well, figuratively just fly by and now literally flying out of town.

Honestly, anytime Michigan beats Ohio State with being 20 point underdogs after Ohio State expressly spends 12 million dollars in part to win a game and they wind up losing it in mind boggling fashion. Charles should stop by if he can and he did and it was great. So, our two, let's move on unless we want to keep talking about it. Look, are you really going to move on? Because I can't see.

No, no, obviously there's so much else to discuss. I just wanted to know who should I submit my parlay reimbursement to? What do you mean? For taking Ohio State in a parlay. What do you mean?

Who should I? You did. Did you really do that? Yeah. You thought it was going to be... Money line. I just thought they'd win. Oh, okay.

Well, that makes sense. Can I do it? Can I expense that here? No, you may not, sir.

I reject everything you just said and frown upon it. Rich, I thank you. You paid for my Christmas trip.

Oh, is that right? Thank you, Michigan. Christmas trip. I bet on Michigan. Wow.

Which I don't normally do. Where are you going for Christmas? So we can get an idea of how much you were actually... Where are you going for Christmas? I'm just going back east, but I'll be sitting... That up front seat costs a little money. Get out of here.

Up front seat. Get out of here. I can pay for plane tickets.

Get out of here. I do pay. I don't get a free plane ticket. We're going to get miles. You must have a good job.

You still have to pay a little bit. So we're here. Chris Brockman's there. Platinum club member, Mike Del Tufo. TJ Jefferson, our number two in this program.

I tend to sit and coach, so you know. Let's take... People have been waiting for a while. Let's go to Kevin in North Carolina. You're here on The Rich Isaac Show. What's up, Kevin? How are you, sir? What is up, Rich?

What's going on? Much love to my guys, Brockman, TJ, and Notorious MDT. Bendication Monday for us all.

Festivus for the rest of us. Michigan, the Cues, the Cowboys, and the Let Russ Cook Pittsburgh Steelers. No doubt. Do you root for all four of them, Kevin, or are you just going around the horn here?

Not really, but I'm behind all you guys, but I was definitely rooting for Michigan because, you know, as a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, you hate everything that comes out of Ohio. Okay. I appreciate that sort of stance. That's very true. I appreciate that sort of stance.

Okay. Before I get to the Michigan loves, since you started with the NFL, as far as your power rankings go, KC may be 11 and one, but there's no way they are higher than number four and maybe even number six. They should have lost to the Panthers and the Raiders in back-to-back weeks. Much love to Michigan. Did Charles Woodson confirm that Urban Meyer even knew who he was before the game? There's no doubt he does now.

I'm not sure if you saw the stat that the team that had the most rushing yards, I believe has now won 23 straight times. I know at this point, you would love to probably give Ryan Day a lifetime contract, but hail to the victors. One of the best parts of the coverage, the shell shocked Ryan Day caught on camera asking, what happened? I'll leave this one up to TJ. Hey, Ryan Day, Austin three 16 on your case Sharon Moore, 1310 says Michigan just. Ladies and gentlemen, Kevin in North Carolina.

That was awesome. Hey, listen, again, I know the recriminations in Ohio state are occurring right now and they have a playoffs to go in. I don't know how far they're going to drop. How far do you drop them?

I mean, they'd still have only two losses. And you know, what are you dropping? The 10?

That deep? They're going on the road. They're going on the road.

They lost their game in the horseshoe. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, right.

They're going on the road. But they can't be put above Indiana though. That's a fact. You cannot put Indiana above Ohio State.

Right, so that means both Indiana and Ohio State go on the road? I still think Indiana should be out. I'm in the minority there. You are in the minority there. You know, Texas and Georgia should both make it, right? Yes.

Okay, who else are we needing to talk about here? Miami should still make it. No, or they're completely out. Miami might be completely out. Well, I mean, because they're not going to give an ACC team an at-large. Is that what you're saying?

Yes, right. So, SMU, Clemson winner, they're in. And then that's that for ACC. Wow, so Syracuse wrecked that buffet. And Georgia Tech. I mean, they lost early in the year to Georgia Tech. Yeah, I mean, Miami's 14 in the AP poll.

If you're just looking at the AP poll for kind of your guidance here. But that doesn't, you can't because there are teams that are going to win their conference that are lower than 14. Right, I understand. But I'm talking for the power conferences.

Understood. So, I mean, Indiana's 9 in the AP poll. Ohio State's 7th. I'm just sitting here wondering, the conference championship games, which one actually, so the ACC is actually winner in, loser out. Boise State. Mountain West.

Boise State, Mountain West. That's kind of a de facto playoff game. Right.

Because they're not going to get two teams. Tennessee, you have Tennessee in, right? Sure. I mean, yeah. So they're the third ACC, SEC team in. Yeah.

Wow. Does Alabama get the 12 seed, maybe? Could they back in?

Could they back in with Miami losing? I don't know. I don't know. We'll get, I guess we'll get the answers tomorrow night in advance of the conference championship games, right? Right. You know. We'll have a clearer picture, I think. Well, I guess, you know, so based on the weekend's results, we don't have to worry about a visiting team coming in and planting a flag in Columbus, do we? No.

You don't want to do that? We don't. Let's talk about the Philadelphia Eagles. At this point in time, anybody that sits here and says the Eagles are going to win the Super Bowl, you got to look at them and go, I believe you.

I believe you. The Lions haven't lost a game since they were one and one. The Eagles haven't lost a game since they were two and two. Lions winning streak is longer. The Eagles winning streak, to be straight up with you, appears to be more consistent. And the consistency is number 26 coming downhill at you. And even if you think you've stopped them in the first half, you kind of realize around the third quarter, there's been a lot of leaning on you.

And 26 is the one that's ready to take the weakened front line and make it porous. And then there's Jalen Hurts playing excellent football. He is the first quarterback in NFL history to have three seasons with 12 or more rushing touchdowns in his career. And sure, the tush push helps, but this guy also sets them up for success by running for first downs when Saquon isn't or throwing for first downs to AJ Brown when Devontae Smith is inactive or throwing touchdowns to Dallas Goddard when he is healthy and Brown is covered and Devontae Smith isn't healthy.

And Saquon may be on the sidelines. And Hurts has 20 offensive touchdowns and just two giveaways since week six. And that's when the winning streak began. They went two and two. They were off week five, week six. They haven't lost since then. And you know who has also been lights out since week six? That Eagles defense, man. Best defense in the NFL? Yay or nay?

Yay or nay? Wow. That's tough. Gotta put them in this conversation. The Chargers are up there. Chargers are up there. Sure. I'll say Philly.

Sure. They're playing the best right now. 15.3 points per game allowed on average. 243 yards. 241.3 yards per game average. Two and a half football touchdowns.

Two and a half football fields. Pardon me. That's all you're getting on the Eagles defense that is plus nine with Hurts holding on to it and Saquon holding on to it and the defense taking it away. That Cooper Dejean. Gotta put him in the conversation with Jared Versa out here, right? For defensive rookie of the year? Queenie on Mitchell, I think, is a little bit more impressive than what Cooper Dejean's doing.

If he'll get his lockdown stats. Maybe. Maybe both of them.

Maybe both. Yeah. He's really friggin good. Mitchell wound up in the blue tent at one point.

Yeah. Where the hell did Greg Bond come from? I understand what Green Bay's outside. Now he's everybody's inside nightmare fuel. He's everywhere.

Everywhere. Jalen Carter is somebody you just do not want to trifle with. He's blowing up plays in a way that's what Chris Jones like. Well, remember the draft. You know, he slipped because of the off-field stuff and we were like, man, how do we let the Eagles take him at nine?

He probably should have been in the top three. He's playing like it. And then there's Saquon.

Once again. Once again, when you think you might have him and you also think you might have the Eagles, he pops one and he runs it again. One way to avoid red zone problems. To beat the Eagles, you need to do a few things. You need to keep the offense off the field and make their defense get tired rather than the other way around, right? Instead of having them lean on you, you're leaning on them. And the best way to keep Saquon out of the end zone is to keep him standing on the sidelines.

That's the way to do it. And then when he does get on the field and the Eagles do get on the field and if they are leaning on you, what you need to have them do is take a ton of time to get down the field. Eight plays, nine plays. And I know they're leaning on you, but then you get in the red zone. You somehow stop him. Stop him. Somehow get him to settle for Jake Elliott.

One way to avoid that, if you're the Eagles, is to have Saquon run it through the red zone directly into the end zone. And he did it again. With halfway through to go in the fourth quarter, he turned a 14-12 game into a 21-12 game with a 25-yard rush touchdown. Again. Eighth game with 100 or more yards in 2024. That ties the Eagles' single season record. Want to name the guy?

Mr. Pennsylvania over there? Old school. Go old school. Single season record?

Yes. Rushing touchdowns or rushing 100-yard games. Old school. Oh, see, I'm thinking McCoy, but it's got to be older. Oh, man. You don't say his name much on this show.

I'll say it for you. Wendell... Wilbert Montgomery. Yes, Wilbert Montgomery. In 1981.

Wow. That's what he's doing for this Eagles team. There's two MVPs right now in the NFL.

Two. One plays quarterback in Buffalo. And one plays running back in Philadelphia because you can't wind up giving it to the running back or the quarterback in Baltimore after the Eagles beat them.

And it would be a very long way down for the Eagles and a steep, fast climb up post-buy for the Ravens, for the Ravens to wind up with a better record and position than the Philadelphia Eagles when it's all said and done. I do believe Saquon eliminated the Ravens quarterback in Lamar Jackson. Along with their defense, the Eagles in general eliminated Lamar and Derrick Henry from the MVP conversation. And Saquon did it again. The only question is, will Jalen Hurts join him? The head coach thinks that Jalen Hurts should be in this conversation. Hey, the Eagles watched the Niners put their quarterback and running back in the MVP Final Five last year. And the HC is pounding the table for that to happen for Philly this year. Can't say enough good things about how Jalen managed that four-minute.

And you'll say, well, game manager, that's all. Jalen played an awesome game. And his stats are going to say, we didn't throw it a lot.

We were 11 and 19. He had 118 yards, but that guy made runs when he needed to make runs. He made good checks. He managed the game in a four-minute to take the clock down to use as much time as he can. Man, Jalen, we haven't thrown it a lot in the fourth quarter in the past month and a half of the season. So, Jalen's stats aren't going to say that, but Jalen deserves, Saquon deserves to be in an MVP consideration. Jalen Hurts deserves to be in an MVP consideration because of how clean of football he's playing. Look at his quarterback rating throughout the last month and a half of the season. Jalen Hurts is a winner, playing great football. He may not have the stats, but because his team's winning in the fourth quarter, he doesn't get to make those stats.

But he's just done such a good job. He doesn't get to make those stats because they're winning in the fourth quarter because Saquon's doing the winning in terms of that. But Jalen Hurts is being incredibly successful, doing what he needs to do, which is hold on to the football, get first downs with his legs, get first downs with his legs, to keep drives going, handing it to Saquon to keep the interceptions down too. It's his second win, this game in Baltimore, second win in 2024 that he had a fewer than 120 passing yards. Only quarterback with multiple such wins this year. They don't need him to do it, but he is playing superbly and Sirianni is 100 percent playing this football violin like a virtuoso.

Last year it was like, what was his malfunction? He took ownership of that actually and kudos to Jeff Lurie, the owner, and Howie Roseman for saying we'll run it back. Let's find the right assistance for you. You find a little bit more even-handedness or evenness in your comportment on the sidelines when necessary and you just be the CEO of it. And you manage the relationships better and he's done it. And you know who appreciates it? The quarterback. I appreciate his intentions with it and I have a lot of love for coaching that. My focus is winning.

My focus is winning and doing what I need to do to help this team win. So gone are the Hurts and Sirianni aren't on the same page. Winning helps, but Sirianni deserves the credit for it. As does Vic Fangio, as does Kellen Moore.

It's all freaking working. Big Dom's back on the sideline. Jalen Hurts is playing his best football in a long time and the defense is balling out and Saquon is out of his skull difference making. And you look at the rest of the schedule, four of the five remaining games of the Philadelphia Eagles are at home. Their only one on the road is at Washington when they can essentially wrap up the East, which they essentially have too, if you think about it. But three of the teams out of the five currently have a losing record. Dallas and the Giants, Carolina, which is I think less of a homecoming as they proved in the last couple weeks.

Certainly yesterday in that overtime loss to Tampa at home, the Lions just need to keep winning. The Lions have 100% a tougher schedule the rest of the way. Starting Thursday with the Packers, they're playing in the tougher division, so that doesn't help either. And then Detroit's got Buffalo at home. They visit San Francisco, which I think will be fighting for its playoff lives on the second to last week of the season. On the second to last week of the season, they visit Chicago and then Detroit wraps up with a home date with Minnesota. That could mean a whole heck of a lot for a ton of teams. They got a 10 win team on their schedule, two of them. Buffalo and Minnesota, they've got one home against Green Bay.

A visit to Chicago where you throw the records out and then who the heck knows what the Niners are going to look like or have to play for on the second to last Monday night game of the year. The Eagles are very well positioned to be the one seed in this conference and be the team with a head of steam going into the playoffs. Lions need to look out. I mean, they can't smell their 10 game win streak. I don't think that they got a coach and a team that's going to do that, but 100% while the Lions were doing their thing early on in the season, I don't think anybody saw a peer, a peering in the conference, but one most certainly has in the Philadelphia Eagles.

They are dangerous. They are terrific on both sides of the ball and they got a coach that is plugged in. Didn't say that about Sirianni on the bye week when he was barking at fans, you know, having fun with fans. Yeah, he might have, he could have got fired earlier this year. I mean, it's crazy. You got to give it up to him. And then we'll talk about the other team, if you will, in the Keystone State.

And then speaking of Keystone, there's the Jets as well, but a different type of Keystone. 844, 204 Rich, no matter how I said it. You're feeling yourself today, man. I am. You know what?

Life's great. Yeah. Here, coach, did the red taste a little bit better this weekend? Oh, you're telling me. You like it. I told you, man. I should point the microphone directly at my chest. Say it, say it.

Back with more of your phone calls at 844, 204 Rich as well. As many of you clearly know, I love going to watch football live. There's nothing like it whether it's college football or professional football.

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Learn more at AmericanExpress.com slash Amex Business. Do you not believe the Tuck Rule was appropriately applied as it was written in the rulebook? I do not. I do not. I watch the news a lot. You know, a lot of times you'll have, you know, two economists on television and they'll be talking about their economy. One will say the economy is doing great and one will say it's in the tank. But you're like, oh, these are economists. They both have the same facts and figures, same numbers.

How can they have differences of opinion, right? Two plus two is four. In our case, two plus two is still four. It's still four. But they added one. So two plus two equals five.

Why? Because they were able to add their own interpretation into it. So they took a play. Two plus two is four, a fumble.

They added their own interpretation and made it into incomplete paths. So if me and you were in the court of law and you're arguing that his arm was going forward, I would say, well, show me the part where his arm's going forward. You would show the tape. You see his arm going forward and then you'd bring it back. And then I say, well, tell me, when did he fumble? Did he fumble while his arm was going forward? And you would have to tell me, no, he brought it when he brought it back into his body.

Hence the Tuck Rule. Correct? Yes.

Okay. So was he bringing it back into his body or was it into his body? So there's a technicality to it. So he wasn't bringing the ball back into his body. When I hit him, he had it. Both hands on the ball. It's in his body.

He ain't bringing it back into his body. It's a fumble. Two plus two is four, unless you add one. And then it's five.

See, I thought you meant two plus two is five because that's how many Super Bowls Tom Brady is winning. I like that. I can dig it. I can dig it. I can dig it. I love the fact that he's won five Super Bowls. I'm happy.

And I'm actually happy for him. This guy. This guy, we've got to make that a drop back on the Rich Eisen Show Radio Network, sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk, furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry.

Grainger has the right product for you. Call clickrainger.com or just stop by. Hugo in Merced, California. What's going on, Hugo? Yeah. Hi, Hugo.

You're on. Oh, hey, Rich. Oh my God. Huge fan of the show. Love you guys.

Chris, TJ. What's up, dude? You guys are awesome. What's up, Hugo? You got to say hi to Mike now. You got to say hi to Mike. Otherwise, he's going to get insulted a little bit. Just a little bit.

Don't put that pressure on, Hugo. I'm here, guys. You guys hear me? Yes. Yeah. Perfect. Perfect. Oh my God.

This is amazing. Okay. Well, we'll guess we'll start off with my question, but I guess my biggest question for you, Rich. Hugo, hold on a second. Let's take a deep breath.

Let's take a deep breath, okay? I'm sorry. No, no, no. It's okay. No, no, no, no. You're good. This is awesome.

This is part of RAS Consulting. It's part of our work. You're good. Let's inhale and then slowly breathe out. And then give us your question. Go.

What do you got? All right, Rich. Well, and if San Francisco Niners, I mean, you raised the concern, I think by a week after the buy, you were talking about this is where the rubber meets the road. And you were kind of on our side. You were like, I think this is where they start to get the traction and just be the one, be the team that they've been showing these last couple of years. And here we are now in the position where we're not favorable. So my question to you, Rich, do Niners just keep battling out, hoping that the Seattle Seahawks, Cardinals, Rams, they start falling short and hopefully get a playoff spot?

Or do we look to the future? Oh, no. No, we're not tanking, Hugo. We're not tanking.

No, no, no. You Niners are not tanking. And Hugo, thanks for the call. Call back again.

That's Hugo and Merced right there. Niners aren't tanking. Here's an actual interesting part of this dynamic that is playing out is the division's still there. Last night truly stunk because that game, I understand there's snow and Kurt Warner hates the snow games and Chris Brockman, interestingly enough, Mr. Let's call it the snow game instead of the tuck rule game, posited on overreaction Monday that every game should have a dome on top of it and it should be indoors and whatever. And so that said, and that Niner fan looked miserable sitting in the snow banks atop the chairs that had several inches of snow on it. Cause I thought 40 inches of lake effect snow hit Western New York prior to that game.

And then it was snowing during it. The Niners are supposed to be the team from out West best equipped to win games like that. Because don't forget when everybody was trolling on the MVP Rogers Packers, the floor years, Niners, they were the team losing to the Packers. They were the team losing to the Niners in those situations in Lambeau Field. Niners went into Lambeau Field and knocked him out in the snow because they had Deebo Samuel that hit you in the mouth. And they had Kittle to hit you in the mouth. And they had Jimmy G throwing the football when he needed to.

And they had the run game and the run fits and the offense to do it. And last night they were doing it with McCaffrey in the snow. And then all of a sudden he slides down. I thought his Achilles gave way. They're saying it's a PCL knee injury that could cost them the rest of the season. Well, the unfortunate part about that play other than the injury, obviously he was gonna score a touchdown. He was gone and then got shoestringed and then landed hard on the knee. And that's what the injury took.

And then he wound up sliding down a couple snaps later. It was all over. And when McCaffrey goes down and out again and Bosa's not on the field and they still haven't gotten to Hifonga and Dre Greenlaw back. And as Mike Torrico said at one point during the broadcast for the Niners, only three starters in Buffalo Sunday night were starters in Las Vegas for the Super Bowl for the Niners last February. They're missing eight starters on defense. And Ayuk's gone for the season and now McCaffrey's gone for the season. And you're sitting here wondering, is it the Niners season?

That's the question you're beginning to wonder. Maybe it's just not our year. The good news is though, the division isn't lost. The problem is, is who's coming back to be healthy for you. And your next game is home against Chicago. They got interims all over the place.

Okay. And then you've got your division game on a Thursday night short week against the Rams, who've got the bills coming in this week. And then you're at Miami and then you've got Detroit on a Monday night, which is truly the one that's on the schedule that just jumps out at you saying you're in deep trouble there before they visit Arizona. You got to win the last five, one would think. And if not four out of five, the one that you can afford to lose would be the one at Miami because it doesn't count against you in any sort of conference standings should they have to come home to roost. And then another reason why you can't tank over the last five games too is you got to make a decision on Brock Purdy in five games. And I know that it's a third rail subject matter with Niner fans when you talk about their quarterback.

You remember all the Trey Lance stands that came out of the woodwork? Mr. Reading the YouTube comments knows over there in the right corner of this studio. But he's got to show something over the last five games here. If he wants to have something that starts with a five or a six, I'll be straight up with you.

And if he wants it from the 49ers, from the 49ers, because if there's any organization that would look at the quarterback position and say, Hey man, Mr. Irrelevant, you are awesome. You are the most relevant Mr.

Irrelevant. And you took us to places that made us make decisions at the quarterback spot. We didn't think we would do, but now we got to make it to the tune of generational enrichment and salary cap busting. And if he doesn't show something over the last few games, there'll be a conversation. Now they may keep him and they do believe in him and he's got an incredible ability to win football games. And you can't lay the injury problems at his feet. But I'm just wondering if they need to see something from him rather than going draft, free agent, trade, I don't know, get Sam Darnold back. Now you're talking.

I don't. I mean, I'm not like, Hey, you look at the top of the division. They got a guy who is not making the 50, 60 million bucks who had a couple stops and Geno Smith might win this division. And so crazier things like, Hey, Brock, we're not going to pay you 50, 60. And there's Sam Darnold out there when the Vikings might move on from him because they've moved on to someone else.

Geno might be available too. I'm just throwing, crazier things have happened in the NFL. So the idea of the Niners tanking, nah, that's not happening. They can win the division and they need to see something from Purdy. I really believe it. I really believe it. They don't need to see what they have in Brandon Allen.

844, 204 Rich, number to dial here on the program. As for Seattle, I know you pegged them to win the division. They went into MetLife and got hit in the mouth. When you are going west to east playing an early window game, that is a tough assignment, certainly against a team that is coming off a buy three and eight or not. Okay.

It ain't easy. And the Jets offense showed up like in the first quarter. It's like, Oh, okay.

There it is. The same way that it flashed in the first quarter against the San Francisco 49ers in week one, marching down the field. They scored 14 points in the first quarter. 99 yards total offense. They even got a two-point conversion right after they missed an extra point. Eight first downs in the first quarter.

Look at that. And then the wheels fell off. And the Seahawks defense showed up. Former Jet Leonard Williams. Did you see the big man with football touchdown? 92 yards for 99. Second longest touchdown in the history of the National Football League. All time. How about this stat? Second longest touchdown by a 300-pound player or heavier.

All time. Mike Patterson at a 98 yarder. Fumble return for a touchdown. But it's the longest intercept and the longest pick six by a 300 pounder ever. It is the longest thick six big man with football touchdown ever.

He's 6'5, 300, TJ. And Geno Smith went 20 of 31 for 206 passing yards, including his eighth game winning drive since the start of 2023. That's the most in the NFL in that span.

Breaking a tie with Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts. It's his seventh fourth quarter comeback since 2023. That is the most in the National Football League. And the Seahawks have now reached seven or more wins for the 15th straight season. Ole Miss Steelers and the Saints have a longer active streak. The Saints will struggle to reach that mark. And they are in sole possession of first place in the West. Seahawks doing that.

All right. And what, pray tell, if Geno Smith, quarterback, Leonard Williams, 300-pounder, have in common? Do you have any idea what they have in common?

I do, but I want you to tell us. Oh, they're former New York Jets. Helping slam the nail in the coffin, potentially, of the Aaron Rodgers era in New York. At least you got that sense of it because Rogers' offense, no points, 159 total yards and nine first downs after they had eight first downs, 89 total yards and 14 points in the first quarter. The offense just disappeared.

And it's not like his BFF wasn't targeted. 12 targets for Adams who scored. And Rogers and Adams, who will share a bust gallery together at one day, became the sixth quarterback wide receiver duo to reach 70 touchdowns. How about that?

Cool. They need two more to pass Drew Brees and Marcus Colston. Marcus Colston? Yeah. So listen, who, by the way, if I'm not mistaken, is one of Hofstra's finest, where the Jets used to train back in the day.

Shout to him. I bring it up because that's just living in the past. And I couldn't believe this. After the game, interim head coach, Jeff Albrecht, had this to say about Rodgers remaining the starter. Would you assess Rodgers' performance today? You know, I always want to go back and really watch the tape. And I got to watch the tape with Todd because a lot of times he'll give me all the nuance and intricacies within the game plan and footwork and the timing and all that. So that'll be a better question for tomorrow. Okay.

Interesting. So the Rodgers era in New York heralded back in the day as the ingredient missing for the Jets to the point in the hard knocks season when Rodgers first arrived and it was all peaches and cream and Rodgers is going to the Tonys and the helicopters are landing in practice and fans are chanting his name and it's all great, right? Remember the scene in hard knocks where the defensive coordinator was showing film of Rodgers and all the throws he can make and all the offensive plays that were soon to come. And he would tell his defensive charges to the team and he would tell his defensive charges, hey, this is the offense that we're going to get in support.

And it was all great. That guy's now the interim head coach of the Jets. Unable to give a straight up answer as to whether Rodgers is going to remain the starter.

Didn't see that one coming from when we saw the Jeff Albrecht moment in hard knocks. Didn't see that as a scenario. Oh, and he needs to look at the tape with the, if you will, interim offensive coordinator who none of the Jets fans thought would be in control of the Rodgers offense. Oh, and the interim head coach is not giving Rodgers the immediate green light to stay the gang green quarterback because he's only won once since becoming the interim head coach. That's the scenario that's played out and it really is just like mind-boggling. Oh, and the general manager has been fired too for the three and nine Jets now.

But snap cut to today. Do we get a different story? I guess the film session went well. We have great belief in Aaron. We really do. And we think he gives us the best opportunity to win. After assessing yesterday's game, I thought there was moments in the first half where you saw Aaron Rodgers. I thought there was moments even in the second half where you saw Aaron Rodgers.

And then there's moments that he didn't play to his standard and he'd tell you the same. So we think he gives us, we believe that he gives us the best opportunity to win. So he's our quarterback.

Okay. So the film session went well. The interim head coach and the interim offensive coordinator are now having film sessions to evaluate Aaron Rodgers viability as being a winning enough quarterback for a three and nine team. That is this current state of the New York Jets and the Rodgers era.

I cannot believe it. Oh, and that's how they're visiting Miami. Oh, and happy birthday, Aaron Rodgers. You're still the quarterback of the Jets.

He's now 41 years age today. And the Jets tweeting out an HBD to him. This was in advance of Albrecht confirming that the interim head coach and the interim offensive coordinator went through the film session determined there's enough there. I can't, I mean, obviously I'm letting my smile and deep sarcasm be my umbrella here, but I, you know, and, and you think Jets fans are nuts for thinking that they're cursed, honestly, like cliched platitudes from an interim head coach talking about best chance to win fig leaf.

We saw enough to believe in our future first ballot hall of fame quarterback who is not playing like it. And no one else is playing like it around them either. And the defense can't make enough plays on the Seahawks to make sure Geno Smith and Leonard Williams don't celebrate on their turf.

At least I guess they didn't plant the flag there. Speaking of teams that should tank. The Jets, all they got to do is keep playing. Chris, the spark that Woody Johnson thought Jeff Albrecht could bring has provided one win.

Yeah, I know. One. One single victory for the Jets.

Okay. And it was against Houston, which is unbelievable. Just like last year when they beat the Texans going away last year. And it was just like, where did that come from with Zach Wilson?

It's unbelievable. And, and, you know, I guess there's a game at Jacksonville or the rest of the, the rest of the way. They, I don't know how they're, I don't know how they're going to wind up. Let's give them that one. I mean, they lose out.

They're going to wind up, they're going to wind up four and 13. And I don't know how you. Not good enough for number one. Whatever. I'm saying you wouldn't be in the Chador sweepstakes.

Whatever. I don't know who's going to come and who's going to coach and who's going to GM it. But at this point in time, the only relevance to talk about is if Rogers has a 300 yard game, which he still has not had since his final days in Green Bay, after a mere 185 passing yards and a passer rating of 73. Last time he had nine losses in a second straight season as a full-time starter.

Obviously he didn't have it last year, but the only time he, he, he had, I guess he's going for this 10 losses was in his first season as a full-time starter in 2008. What a disaster. The only thing I should say is this. It should just give the Jets more of a mental note that in 2037, when Jordan loves looking for a new team, just come up with a different plan. Put that in a time capsule for whoever's in charge. We'll take a break. 8 4 4 2 0 4 rich number two.

I don't mean to be that way, but it's just, I need to be thinking more college football. That's right. Huzzah.

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Shopify.com slash Westwood One. So I'm seeing right here, let me see, someone just tweeted this one to me, someone from awful announcing. What do we got? Rich eyes and greaves for the death of the Ohio State Michigan rivalry, which I did with my tongue friendly planted and cheek on NFL Network yesterday. If a four game winning streak is enough to kill a rivalry, then it already died three separate times from 2004 to 2019. I'm fully aware of how many times Michigan lost in a row to Ohio State.

Oh, it was a lot. I don't know, some folks who root for the Buckeyes or the Ohio State people sometimes might need a roadmap for sarcasm or anything that's a little bit above the fray of just straightforward talk. In a way I was going to, if I was still tweeting, which I'm not right now, how silent was it in the horseshoe?

Was it like a library in there? Or even though many of you don't know what the inside of one sounds like, there's many different ways to go, but me grieving on NFL Network for the loss of the Michigan Ohio State rivalry was just giving back to those who were giving that to me during those losing streaks of saying, you know, I just, it's better for the rivalry when we're both as good as each other, you know? The rivalry, it's just not as much of a rivalry if you're not going to be competitive enough for us.

It's not a rivalry when one team. Right, so that's what I was going for when I did that on NFL Network. It was a segment about airing of grievances because it's Festivus season this holiday season. Instead of me coming up with a grievance, I said, I'm going to grieve for Ohio State fans and the loss of the rivalry because that's all I heard during those losing streaks, Ben.

It's called sarcasm and nuance by the way. And it's actually excellent announcing. It's not awful announcing.

It's excellent. Rich, you know that ever since you moved me on to this position, Michigan has not lost. I won't say I'm like the good luck champ, but I tried to get you to say it with your chest before it even happened. You know, I'm just saying. No, and listen, I appreciate Michigan's doing so much winning now in this rivalry that others are taking credit. Jack Andrade, NFL Network researcher, came up with a graphic that when he and other researchers were the NFL Game Day morning researcher in my tenure, Michigan was one in nine.

Ben McWilliams, the current researcher, were 4-0. So I'm like, if Ben wants the credit, you want the credit? Happy. There's enough credit to go.

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Get a free quote at triethos.com. That's T-R-Y-E-T-H-O-S.com. Jeff in Detroit, because he brings so much joy to our lives. And I know what we are enjoying is what he's enjoying, and that's the royal we, when it comes to football in the state of Michigan. How are you, Jeffrey? Well, I say very good, son. I'm feeling so good right about now.

I was able to call my cousin Don in Columbus and get hung up on the other day. So beautiful when that happens. It is truly beautiful when that happens. Did you know Ryan Day was a part of a rap group back in the day with Pete Nice and MC Search? I think it was called Third Base, maybe?

Oh, no, I think so. This is one of the first ones out of Harbaugh's mouth. I tell you, it is really, really wonderful when Michigan beats that team Ohio State.

And the thing about it is this. I'm looking at Fox broadcasters, and when the skirmish broke out, unsportsmanlike conduct, disrespectful. Well, what would you call them pooping on a U of M emoji? I would consider that disrespectful. I would consider that unsportsmanlike, but you know, it's just like that. Also, I'm a little upset too for the hit that Trevor Lawrence took over the weekend. That was just some bull crap right there, man.

The dude was giving up, and the football should not be played that way. Jeffrey, thanks for the call. You always make our day.

Thank you. That's Jeff in Detroit right there. He's referring to Aziz al-Shayyir of the Houston Texans, who as Trevor Lawrence in his return from action and a bye week was clearly sliding. And al-Shayyir, he made his move while Lawrence began his slide, but he continued the hit in a way with his forearm after the contact was made. And you could basically see the extra juice that did appear to be unnecessary, certainly in this day and age.

And I know we're talking about grown men who are defenders of first variety like al-Shayyir is. And I'm sitting here on my couch being able to make these decisions as opposed to split decisions, but it looked awful. He deserved to be ejected. I just didn't think that when these moments happen, if somebody's ejected and what he did is clearly something that another player wants to back the offended party, the one who's being carted off the field, there shouldn't be an offsetting penalty. It shouldn't be just like, hey, we're just going to play the same down over again.

That's insane. We should change the rule. If somebody is ejected, that supersedes somebody who's not. It was clearly upset and doing something unsportsmanlike because the initial unsportsmanlike penalty was so egregious, somebody's got to show some spine and do something on behalf of a teammate that's being carted off. I couldn't believe that. That was offset.

We should have some form of eyesight and ability to discern the situation to make a ruling where somebody's also getting marched forward 15 yards or back. Again, just put me on the competition committee. I'll make everything all right. The world is all right right now in the sports world as far as I'm concerned, basically, is the message. Yeah, and he did go on Twitter this morning and apologized to Trevor. And he apologized to Trevor and a whole bunch of people.

He said how they spoke before the game, and he was excited to see Trevor back out on the field. And again, that's why I need to say here, we're not the ones in the cleats. We're not the ones in the pads. We're not the ones who have to work themselves up into such a frenzy to play the game.

These are split second place, too. I always go back to Brian Dawkins, who if you meet him in person, he is just like some normal dude. And Dominic and Sue has been here. And then he would put on what he said, the eye black. This is the Hall of Fame defender from Philadelphia and Broncos' fame as well. He would call himself the idiot man when he put the eye black on. He would become an idiot is what he basically said.

So you've got to put that in mind as you see the statement from Al Shair here. But again, if somebody is conducting himself in such a manner that he's ejected, and somebody else is conducting themselves in a manner that is at least, even though breaking the plane of unsportsmanlike, but is understandable. Because something so horrible has just happened to a teammate. Can we just be humans instead of, well, that's one penalty. That's another penalty. Technically, they must offset. How does it offset when one guy's being carted off and the other guy's being ejected? And you're being penalized also for reacting appropriately? Although unsportsmanlike, I get it.