Share This Episode
The Rich Eisen Show Rich Eisen Logo

Dan Wetzel: Ohio State Is What We Thought They Could Be

The Rich Eisen Show / Rich Eisen
The Truth Network Radio
January 2, 2025 3:40 pm

Dan Wetzel: Ohio State Is What We Thought They Could Be

The Rich Eisen Show / Rich Eisen

On-Demand Podcasts NEW!

This broadcaster has 2329 podcast archives available on-demand.

Broadcaster's Links

Keep up-to-date with this broadcaster on social media and their website.


January 2, 2025 3:40 pm

1/2/25 - Hour 2

Yahoo! Sports’ Dan Wetzel and Rich discuss Ohio State’s dominance through two games of the College Football Playoff so far, if the Texas Longhorns have a chance to stop the steamrolling Buckeyes in their CFP semifinal showdown, Penn State’s chances to reach the National Championship Game, how to fix the controversial CFP Selection Committee’s controversial seedings, and the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl’s heated exchange between Illinois HC Bret Bielema and South Carolina HC Shane Beamer.

Rich and Brockman debate if Oregon got a raw deal by the way the College Football Playoff brackets were laid out by the Selection Committee.

Rich reveals his brand-new NFL Power Rankings heading into Week 18

Please check out other RES productions:

Overreaction Monday: http://apple.co/overreactionmonday 

What the Football with Suzy Shuster and Amy Trask: http://apple.co/whatthefootball

The Jim Jackson Show: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-jim-jackson-show/id1770609432

No-Contest Wrestling with O'Shea Jackson Jr. and TJ Jefferson: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/no-contest-wrestling/id1771450708

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

COVERED TOPICS / TAGS (Click to Search)
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

As a business owner, you're always going that extra mile to pursue your passions, so you deserve partners who can help you go further with premium benefits and rewards. The American Express Business Platinum Card offers world-class business and travel benefits, so you can get more for your business wherever it takes you. With the Amex Business Platinum Card, you can earn 1.5 times membership rewards points on select business purchases, and you can get complimentary access to more than 1,400 airport lounges worldwide, including the Centurion Lounge, so you can keep running your business while you're on the go. See how the Amex Business Platinum Card gives business owners like you the tools and rewards to do more of what you love. Terms and points can't apply.

Learn more at AmericanExpress.com slash Amex Business. And the NFL, as we all know, there is no margin for error. One single mistake can change the outcome of a game or even, yeah, a career. Science proves quality sleep can help boost reaction time, recovery time, and overall athletic performance. Putting it all together, the official sleep and wellness partner of the NFL is Sleep Number, whose mission is to provide players with data and insights to optimize their sleep for the ultimate competitive edge. And you can have it, too.

I know all about it. I've been around Sleep Number since 2015. My Sleep Number setting is 60.

My wife's is 70, just 10 numbers apart. But it is the world of difference. We can set the mattress firmness on each side of the bed to the way that we want and get a great night's sleep. So why choose a Sleep Number Smart Bed? So you can choose again your ideal comfort on either side. And now it's the lowest price of the season on the top-selling i8 Smart Bed.

Your best savings plus special financing, limited time. Shop a Sleep Number store near you. Sleep Number, official sleep and wellness partner of the NFL.

Visit the ABC store or sleepnumber.com for details. And now it's Rich Eisen. That's right. Hour number two of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. We just spent the first hour chopping up the New Year's Day Bowl results as well as the New Year's Eve Bowl results with the Penn State Nittany Lions moving on. They were the first team to move on into the national semifinals. They're awaiting the Sugar Bowl, which will go down tonight between Notre Dame and Georgia. And while it will be Ohio State versus Texas in the national semifinal game before the national championship on January 20th.

So there's going to be a lot of time between now and crowning a champion. A lot of time for, I guess, Ohio State to just cool their jets sitting there in Columbus, Ohio, eager to take apart Texas. And Quinn Ewers, former the Ohio State Buckeye quarterback room participant. And he's now going to try and make sure the Buckeyes don't go any further.

A lot of fun to discuss with Daniel Wetzel of Yahoo Sports is going to join us shortly. Damian Woody of the worldwide leader in sports in hour number three to set the stage for the finale of the NFL regular season. There's just only a couple of playoff spots still up in the air. The seventh seed in the American Football Conference. Will it be Denver? Will it be Miami? Will it be Cincinnati? And then, of course, the only question is who's going to win the NFC South? All we need to see out of Tampa Bay is a home win against the Saints and they clinched the South.

And it won't matter what the Atlanta Falcons do against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. There's two games on Saturday. There'll be another show for us on Friday. I'll be back in studio there. I'm sitting in in Utah for one more day. The family and I are done with our winter break and I'll be back in studio tomorrow. But joining us right now in his third decade as national sports columnist from Yahoo Sports, Dan Wetzel back here in the Rich Isaac show. Happy New Year, Dan. Happy New Year to you, Rich.

Good to see you. Same here, pal. So I imagine the story of the college football playoffs so far is I have an idea what it might be, but I never want to put words in your mouth. Your perspective of the first two rounds of the college football playoffs is what? Ohio State is a absolute wagon that we thought they could be.

Was that your choice? No, no, that's it. I mean, and that is no doubt the storyline of the college football playoffs so far. And, you know, I was saying before, Dan, to start the show, the text I received more than any other text on New Year's Day other than, you know, wasn't Happy New Year from those who know me. It's how the hell did your team beat this Ohio State team?

You know, like it does put sort of a big question mark on that. But the exclamation point has been a lot of states performance over the first two rounds of these playoffs, Dan. Yeah, I after the Michigan game, I said that was the worst coached game I'd ever seen. And most people agree, but there are a few people like, you know, wasn't like a 42 point point spread or something. But considering you built up to Michigan, I just had never seen a game so poorly coached. And in the two games since, it makes me feel better about that statement because this is, you know, this is the team we thought we would see. They remind me right now of Mike Tyson in his prime.

They come out of the gate and absolutely swarm you and they are throwing haymakers. There's no feeling out. There's no jabs. There is just let's throw it to Smith.

Let's throw it to Ibuka. Let's run this. We are going downfield, full throttle, all gas, no breaks.

Boom. And Oregon and Tennessee came out and that was the old line. Everyone's got a plan until they get punched in the mouth. They got punched in the mouth and it's over.

You can't, obviously you're not going to have a knockout. You're going to play all 60 minutes, but the games are basically over three possessions in. And that's what Ohio State looks like to me right now. They've always, really since the Nebraska game, had a tremendous defense. And that was, I always thought, hey, they could, if they get the offense figured out, they'll be fine. Even against Michigan, great defensive performance. But that defense is still just as good, if not better. But the offense now is there's no more, we need to establish the run and we've got to show how tough we are. We've got to do this. It's just we've got the best players on the field, get them the ball.

Yeah, exactly right. And so do you think that the staff did do a self-scout after the loss to Michigan and said, what the hell were we doing? Let's screw it.

This is the way we should go about it. And Tennessee and Oregon have been on the business end of that. Do you really think that's what happened? I think they needed to have a self-scout.

I think it's pretty obvious they should have said, what were we doing? And I think that Chip Kelly and Ryan Day are offensive coaches. And Ryan Day has built his program in a little different way than Urban Meyer and certainly a different way than Jim Tressel. He has recruited and built a program designed to beat SEC teams in the playoffs and have the athletes and the firepower to do that. Now the sport has changed because of NIL and the transfer portal and the best teams are not all in the SEC.

But that used to be the case five years ago when he was really putting together the program and saying, what are we going to be about? We have to beat LSU, we have to beat Alabama, we have to beat Georgia, we have to beat Clemson and to do that we need athletes. Michigan is the thorn in their side because you build a program one way and then you say, oh this one week we're going to be the toughest team in the world. We're going to be tougher than Michigan. It's really hard to be tougher than Michigan.

They're a really, really tough team. And so that doesn't work and he's too far in his head and all the stuff we've already discussed. But now that he's freed from that because there ain't no Maize and Blue in this thing.

They're not showing up. And now it's like, hey, we've got these guys. I remember just quickly last year on signing day, Ryan Day is standing at the podium announcing the signees, right?

You get to talk about each kid. You know, he's going to be great. We got this linebacker and all that. And Jeremiah Smith had not, his paperwork hadn't come in until the middle of the press conference. And so per NCAA rules you couldn't talk about him until it comes in. And there was a little bit of like rumors. Could he stay at Miami?

Could flip him at the last second or Florida State? It was a little tense. And Ryan Day is at the press conference and he gets word that Smith is signed.

The paperwork is in and he can now talk about him. And he did this little like bent his knees and like did this like fake like faint almost and like this huge exhale. It was kind of funny at the time. But as you watch this kid play, you can see that wasn't a joke.

It was like, oh my God, we're going to be fine. Because as good as the other guys are, he's unbelievable. He's uncoverable. And so you watch and you go, bang, this is that team they've got right now. And the other guys aren't just his current teammates.

I think you can throw Marvin Harrison Jr. and Karen Wilson and Chris Olave and JSN in there. Like you could really you could really throw those guys in there and that that's how much of a difference maker this kid is. And he is the one you make the terrific analogy of Tyson in his prime. He's he's the haymaker. He's the he's the guy with the brass knuckles.

That guy, he's the kid. And what was the you know, Tyson? What was so exciting was obviously could knock you out at any moment, but it was also he just show up.

You wouldn't even like have a robe on, right? He just walk out there and the first punch should be a left hook to try to knock the guy's head into the third row. You're like, what is this isn't like boxing. They're supposed to feel each other out now, feeling out. Oh, no, we're going right to you.

You're the court. They know the cornerback's nervous. The quarterback, the cornerback wants to settle in.

Now, we're not letting anyone settle in. We're going right at you with the best player. And there's no getting it's it's it's the same thing in basketball. Get the other teammates involved, right?

LeBron, Steph, you control the fourth quarter, but look at the other guys involved. They're like, nope, we're going to get up and we're going to show you. We have something you can't you're not going to do anything with this guy. Then you got to cover two and a half dudes over there. And then we go. We'll go to our other array of talent or run the ball really well. And then you've got this defense. I mean, Caleb Downs, Jack Sawyer, and these guys are terrific.

So right now, this team is the team to beat it and even close. It's kind of funny. Ryan Day came in with the expectation of how I got to keep my job. And now he's won two games and now it's switched all the way to, well, you better win the national title. Like the pendulum swings on this poor guy.

Yes. Then he comes in with no confidence. Now he's like, oh, no, everyone thinks I got to win it. But hey, I'd rather play with that deck of cards than anyone else. No doubt.

Champagne problem there. I've got Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports here on the Rich Eisen Show. Texas is next up for the Ohio State juggernaut.

Quinn Ewers came from the Ohio State program. Fascinating matchup on paper. The question is, do you feel that Texas has what it would take to slow down Ohio State and maybe make it not their day again?

Probably not, but I want to see it. They do have a very good defensive line. And can they get pressure on Will Howard?

You know, can they can they disrupt the offense that way? Texas to me has a million good players. They have so many good players. They are good all over the field.

I don't know how great they are in certain places. And that includes Ewers. Ewers has moments where you're just like that.

That's not it. And then you have the fourth and 13 against Arizona State. Whole season on the line, his legacy on the line, everything on the line.

They're about to lose to the Sun Devils. And he recognizes and reads the blitz. He switches. If you rewatch that play, they'll show the highlight all day. He switches his offensive lineman to make the right pass blocking and then he looks off the safety and he drops a perfect pass to win to basically win the game, save the game. And you look at that, you go, that's an NFL player right there in every single way. And then you watch the other things and you go, man, maybe they should be playing Arch Manning.

And that's why Steve Sarkeesian plays Quinn Ewers. He checked out of a play into a run against Clemson. That was a critical play. He does certain things. But there's also, but this isn't a team that you think, hey, they're going to put 49 points up and win a shootout against Ohio State.

I don't know if they have that. So their defensive line has to come up big if you can do that. And that was something that Michigan did on their own right. It wasn't all Ohio State playing terribly. That Michigan defensive line was tremendous and it stopped the running attack and did some things.

That's what I got to see. But if Ohio State is at all cylinders, they're going to be fine. If Texas can be Buster Douglas, who, ironically or coincidentally, is from Columbus, Ohio, then they're going to have to play a whale of a game. Well, I mean, you mentioned how many good players Texas has. You could make a case one of their best players is standing on the sideline. I mean, throw an arch in this mix, too, to just I know you got two quarterbacks, you don't have any. And I know behind the scenes, Quinn Ewers is getting advice from some people in NFL ranks to say maybe you should stay in college. And thus, he would know you'd have to get in the transfer portal because Texas is going to move to arch next year. And I know that that's a lot of stuff playing behind the scenes. But uncorking arch on Ohio State, you know, where where you can't game plan for it or you do your best until you can see him. Maybe that's a that would be an interesting semifinal twist.

What do you think, Dan? They have used him for his legs. He's a he's a terrific runner. And if you haven't watched that, you know, he's played some games, but you would not believe that he's Peyton and Eli's nephew. A Manning wheels on the Manning. But Cooper was a college receiver until he got hurt.

And any arch credits his mother for his athleticism. So it's very funny. But they did not use him against Arizona State. And so it's an interesting.

And then you have this really interesting dynamic. You have a guy in Quinn Ewers who's now led Texas to a 14 playoff last year and the final four this year. And to they won the they won the Big 12. They made the SEC Championship game by all accounts, incredibly successful college career and probably about 60 percent of the fan base. And 100 percent of the 99 percent of the reality is, yeah, you need to hit the transfer portal or play so well in these last two games that the NFL says, yeah, we'll take you. He doesn't really may not have a future in Austin.

Very unusual situation because he's been extremely successful as a Texas quarterback. And he's got that hanging over his head yet doesn't seem like it affects him. Maybe it does.

Maybe it doesn't. But they're still winning. That game against Arizona State was incredible.

So dramatic. And it's survive in advance. Doesn't matter how you look, you're you're you're there. You got your chances against Ohio State.

Game's going to be in Arlington, Texas. Texas doesn't back down from anyone. Like I said, they have really, really good players at every position on the field. I've watched them twice live this year and they're just a really good football team. Can they? They don't have that elite talent that that Ohio State does.

Will that be the difference? Dan, what's a few minutes left for the national columnist for Yahoo! Sports right here on the Rich Eisen show? The three teams remaining on the other side of the bracket, the team with the best chance to make the finals, Penn State, Georgia, Notre Dame.

Where would you put your marker there, Dan? I got to I hate to do this. I got to see what happens today.

Got it. How is how is Gunnar Stockton as a quarterback for Georgia? I mean, kids never started a game. He was OK in that SEC championship game. He's coming in for Carson back. But we have seen backups do really well in college football. It's like Georgia has they don't recruit bad players, right? People are like, oh, the backup.

They think it's like a high school with the socks are falling down or something like he's a good player. So I got to see that or I got to see what Notre Dame how Notre Dame's offensive line handles Georgia. And so that would be what we go there. Penn State's really solid. And we very well could end up with a rematch of Penn State, Ohio State in the national title game. If Drew Aller is not making mistakes, that that team absolutely can be either Georgia or or Notre Dame. That side of the bracket will be very, very interesting.

That's that semifinal. I like this. I like this Penn State team.

And it would be it would be very interesting if we just end up with an all Big Ten final. Yeah. Tyler Warren's. He's the real deal, man.

I can guard an absolute beast in the next level. A beast at touchdown. Pat catch he had was so I really all respect both the Boise and Arizona State. I get the beginning of those games that look like they're going to lose 50 to zero. They got jumped, say, didn't Oregon, Oregon couldn't come back. Boise made it a game. They made a competitive. They were the they were the lesser team, but they had a chance to pull an upset. And there was that one play where where Aller hit Warren in the back of the end zone and it was NFL quarterback to NFL tight end. And the Boise State player did everything he could. And it's just one of those.

Hey, what are you going to do? They've got these guys. We don't. And that was really I think what other than a penalty or two here or there. That was the critical play of the game that kept Boise State from kind of being in it right at the end and maybe forcing something. So if they play their game, they got a nice running attack. They got some momentum. You see how happy those guys were after they won.

They are having a good time. This playoff was built for teams like Penn State that might not have qualified or didn't qualify for a 14 playoff or two team BCS. But you give them a chance, you get them rolling. They got two wins under their belt. They got a lot of confidence. And I think they're going to feel really good going into this semifinal. Well, then before I let you go, Dan Wetzel, how how do the first few games hit the college football playoff committee?

The first round games were total blowouts, absolute blowouts. And, you know, Oregon fans today are, you know, lamenting. Obviously, you know, if they weren't nearly in the same realm as the Ohio State, they would eventually have to face them or somebody who would knock them off and have a similar problem. But they're not happy that they had to face Ohio State at a neutral site in their first game. And there's already folks saying maybe the teams with bye weeks should get a home date themselves, that it would make make things more competitive. Would certainly maybe you come up with an idea where the bye week teams don't have to be conference champions that you actually rank them. Notre Dame could get away with being an independent team and still having a bye week, that sort of thing. What's how do you think the first, I guess, now seven games of the college football playoffs has hit the college football playoff committee? Dan, I throw Tennessee in there, too, is getting kind of unfairly seeded because of the way this thing worked out. The Tennessee team, I'm sure they're sitting there going, see, we weren't that bad. Look at look what would happen to Oregon to Ohio State is just Ohio State.

I think the obvious things are and that they can probably get rid of is the seeding. It's not that Boise State and certainly Arizona State was properly seeded. Arizona State was fine. They lost a double overtime to the five seed.

So it's not like there was a big problem there. Boise State was a good team. I thought they put out a very good effort. I think they should be really proud of how they did and how they atone for themselves. But were they really the three seed?

No. So getting rid of that for those spots in the conference championship. And this this playoff system was created when there were six leagues when when or five power leagues. And so you were looking at it like, well, there's the Pac-12 still existed and we'll get a really good team. And the Big 12 hadn't switched out. So if you looked at it normally when they designed this, the top four seeds by conference champion, if you went back to the old conferences would have been Oregon as a Pac-12.

Ohio State or Penn State, whatever, as the Penn State is the Big 10, one of those two. And then Texas would have been a Big 12 team. And then you'd have Georgia.

So it would have worked out a little bit better. But getting rid of that home field. Maybe you give maybe they get a home game in the first round, like they can be seven and eight or something.

And then I think they have to go to quarterfinal home games. You saw the tickets. It's a softer ticket market. It's you're asking a lot of fans. If if Ohio State is in Eugene, is that a different thing? You've got to reward the regular season. You've got to make the regular season matter.

That's what they talk about all the time. Regular season, best regular season football. And then Oregon goes out and goes 13 and 0 and they get nothing for it.

They got to buy. But they also had to play an extra game that Ohio State didn't. So they've played the equal amount of games. So they got absolutely nothing for this except a neutral site game against Ohio State. So there's there's a couple of quick fixes.

Now, the Bulls are going to fight like hell to say, no, we don't want to we don't want to give up the quarterfinals. But to me, the first round and the quarterfinals absolutely should be on campus for a variety of reasons. And those are a lot easier to fix than some other stuff. I'll tell you what I have not seen. We need to expand and get more teams in.

I haven't seen that. That hasn't been the issue. We got enough teams like we really there's probably six to seven teams that could have really advanced to this tournament. And we that's fine. And then the other ones kind of sort themselves out.

So we're good with 12. Last one for you, Dan Wetzel. I appreciate the time you've already given.

And I believe it's the only time I've ever asked another human being this question and how often you've been asked it. But here it goes. What happened in the Cheez-It bowl, Dan? What happened in the Cheez-It bowl?

Oh, it was fantastic. A Cheez-It bowl near coach fight. So being held back on Brett Buell, what the hell happened here? When you're playing for Cheez-It's when you I mean, you got to sometimes you got to throw down. Sometimes someone's got to get hit.

It's just the way it is. You got to walk in knuckles up, you know. So what happened was if you watch a lot of football, you know, when they get the ball in the end zone, they do this bar tea, they call it.

But the guy basically stands out his arms like an airplane. And it's a signal to the the the team, the coverage team that we're not going to return the ball. It's not officially a fair catch because, you know, the fair catch in the end zone or the ball is going to go over.

It's a courtesy. I'm sorry, South Carolina did the bar tea, but then caught the ball and then threw a lateral and tried a fake play. And Brett Bilema, the Illinois coach, got fired up that the the ethics of the bar tea had been violated. And so he goes over during an injury timeout and mocks the well, Shane Beamer thought it mocked him with by doing the bar tea in front of the Illinois sideline. Brett said, I was mocking everybody, so he was ready to fight them all. But Beamer got upset. He was he was going after him. That said, did you like a tale of the tape here?

I'm not sure you really want any part of that. He cheesed it. He cheesed it at the very end. It's what he did. He didn't look too concerned.

And that's just no, no, no shame on him. You need to be a very big man to make Brett Bilema a little concerned about a fight. So we had to dust up in the Cheez-It bowl. And that's what we want. We want our Cheez-It bowl spot with this kind of I just get a power slap table out there. Let's set up an octagon, whatever we got to do.

Let's do it. We got a power slap fan here. Oh, yeah. Well, Brockman loves the power slap, certainly when you can combine Cheez-Its in it. Oh, we lost.

And it's all good. OK, there we go. I guess we run out of time with him. He cheesed it at the very end.

Power slap. OK, there he goes. Normally, as you know, I have. Well, you're going to you're going to have to call Dan. I'm going to have to call him and say goodbye right there. Yeah. Say the goodbye. Fun stuff right there with Dan Wetzel.

Lots to chew on. Before we take a break, just want to let you know that nothing feels as good as driving a new Hyundai. And now you can get a great deal on your favorite model at the Hyundai getaway sales event. Make your next getaway your best one yet. Visit HyundaiUSA.com today. Drive away now. And one of our most popular models with zero percent APR and zero zero payments for 90 days. Only during the Hyundai getaway sales event offer ends January 2nd call five six two three one four four six zero three four details.

We'll take a break. Come back, unpack a little bit of what Dan just said and then give you my power rankings heading into the final week of the NFL season. As a business owner, you're always going that extra mile to pursue your passions, so you deserve partners who can help you go further with premium benefits and rewards. The American Express Business Platinum card offers world class business and travel benefits so you can get more for your business wherever it takes you. With the Amex Business Platinum card, you can earn one point five times membership rewards points on select business purchases, and you can get complimentary access to more than fourteen hundred airport lounges worldwide, including the Centurion Lounge, so you can keep running your business while you're on the go. See how the Amex Business Platinum card gives business owners like you the tools and rewards to do more of what you love. Terms and points can't apply.

Learn more at American Express dot com slash Amex Business. In the NFL, as we all know, there is no margin for error. One single mistake can change the outcome of a game or even, yeah, a career. Science proves quality sleep can help boost reaction time, recovery time and overall athletic performance. Putting it all together, the official sleep and wellness partner of the NFL is Sleep Number, whose mission is to provide players with data and insights to optimize their sleep for the ultimate competitive edge. And you can have it, too.

I know all about it. I've been around Sleep Number since twenty fifteen. My sleep number setting is sixty.

My wife's is seventy. Just ten numbers apart. But it is the world of difference. We can set the mattress firmness on each side of the bed to the way that we want and get a great night's sleep. So why choose a Sleep Number smart bed? So you can choose again your ideal comfort on either side. And now it's the lowest price of the season on the top selling I8 smart bed.

Your best savings plus special financing, limited time. Shop a Sleep Number store near you. Sleep Number, official sleep and wellness partner of the NFL. See store or sleep number dot com for details. Set of ovaries and then we obsess.

Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Real quick, do you want to ask a method man before he goes, your your question that you ask everybody about my hometown? No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

I give you I give you grief. OK, look, now, when people say, hey, I'm going to visit New York City, they don't mean visit Staten Island. So do you think Staten Island is really part of New York City? You know what? I just went through this with somebody.

I definitely went through this with somebody on Twitter. And they were like, you know, that's not even really New York. One of the five boroughs. OK, see, it's not a vacation destination of New York City. No one's going to Staten Island. You know what I'm saying? But if you check for one, Staten Island is the highest point on the eastern seaboard. First of all, and second, we have the most. Well, let's put it this way.

Date night Staten Island is tops to go for date night because we have the most restaurants in New York City. That's right. Holler at your boy. Yes. It's about food and love. Oh, and football. Because Curtis warriors won the whole thing last year. OK, 12 and 0 went to the big one. That's right. Won that game at Yankee Stadium. Brought the title home to New York City.

Yes, I stand corrected. And I won my fantasy football yesterday. Oh, really? A lot. Congratulations.

What's the name of your fantasy football team? Supreme clientele. OK.

Yes. Pretty is pretty. Supreme clientele took it down. By the way, that whole Staten Island chat could not have gone any better. Method Man only knew my prom date and vomited off the side of the Staten Island Ferry. So we've got to get him back. It's been a while. That's my man right there. YouTube dot com slash Rich Eisen Show for our full 10 plus year archive on our channel. Back on the Rich Eisen Show radio network. I'm 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 click Grainger dot com or just stop by. Listen, before we get to my power rankings, the statement or take by Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! National sports columnist who has been covering college football forever and a day, saying that the quarterfinal games, meaning the games that we're just seeing now and the final four quarterfinal games is tonight in New Orleans in the Sugar Bowl, that those games should not be at neutral sites. They should be at the homes of the one seed, two seed, three seed, four seed, the four teams that get it by.

I fully believe it. I think that that is the way to go to try and make these games more, shall we say, competitive. If it wasn't for Cam Scataboo and a couple of those other Arizona State Sun Devils coming up big in the final throws in Atlanta of the Peach Bowl, we would be saying, why don't we just go back to four teams? You know what I mean?

Just go back to the way it was. Am I wrong? I don't think that would be an overreaction either.

No, not at all. Look, it's been cool. It's been an event. It's been fun for something to look forward to, to watch. You're getting these matchups that haven't ever really happened before, don't happen very often. And the games have just been brutal. Over, kind of after the first quarter, right away. It's been tough, but hopefully that game was great. It ended up being awesome after it looked like it was going to be a blowout, you know, 24 to 8. And hopefully today's game is a classic as well.

But, man, I don't know what the fix is. I do like the idea of the home games. I think that would be a nice change up. They should get a home game. Like, hey, listen, you get a week off, the other team gets a home game to start, but they have to play.

But to be honest with you, it's not like the NFL playoffs. I mean, Ohio State, before they took on Tennessee in the middle of December, their last game was November 30th. So they basically got a bye week anyway, going into their home date. So the extra bye, what does that mean? You get another week off? So it's three weeks off?

You can actually get rusty in that regard. So you might as well try and reward the teams that have a week off with also a home game, just like the NFL does it. You know, it's not like the Chiefs get the week off and now suddenly have to play a neutral side game against, name it, you know, the Steelers or the Chargers, right? Or or, you know, the Bengals.

Could you imagine? That's just not the way it should be. That there should be not just the bye week. You get a game at home. I imagine it would have been different if Penn State was on the blue turf.

Right. Would have been different. Maybe had Ohio State had to go to Oregon again. Yeah, and everyone's been saying, hey, look, although every league has blow outs in the playoffs and I guess that's sort of true. I'm just looking at last year's NFL playoffs. You know, in the first round, Tampa blew out Philly 32 to nine. Kansas City blew out Miami, I guess a blow out 26 to seven. And Houston smoked Cleveland 45-14. So they were not competitive. You know, that's three out of the six games.

That's half. And even Buffalo beat Pittsburgh by two scores, you know, because you can make an argument. Most of those first round games were not competitive either. But his point was well taken that when this 12 team playoff concept was born, Texas was in the Big 12. There was a Pac-12.

True. And so the four bye week teams would have been Oregon as a Pac-12 representative. Either Ohio State or Penn State as the Big Ten representative. Or I guess back in that day, it would have been Penn State would have been because Penn State would have gone to the Big Ten championship game against whoever won the Western Division, which, you know, wouldn't have been able to hold a candle to Penn State in that game. Also, Oregon would have played a completely different schedule.

Well, that's true. But just for the purposes of this, he would have said Texas, Penn State or Ohio State, Oregon would have been three. And Georgia would have been your four seeds to move through as the as the as the bye week teams. And thus, that might have been more of a competitive matchup with whoever, you know, graduated from the first round games.

I and that's why. But your point there of saying, you know, there's blowouts in so many other sports, I think would have absolutely is going to mean that the college football playoff committee is going to do nothing. They won't do a thing, certainly because they're not going to want to have any sort of because, you know, Dan Wetzel made the point that the bowls will not like it because you've got the sugar and the peach and the cotton. And you've got the Rose Bowl just to name four of them. You know, there's the Orange Bowl as well.

Who's going to you know, one of those is going to be on the outside looking in, not getting even a semifinal game. And the Rose Bowl should always be involved. I'm biased, but there's nothing like that.

There's nothing like it. Joel Klotz already out there on Twitter saying that should be the national championship game site every year. Obviously, I'd be for that. Yeah, I mean, I mean, yeah. But if you've been to a game there, you understand the pageantry, the atmosphere. It doesn't get any better than that, man.

What is the Penn State fan on this panel think of this conversation? What you said about the Rose Bowl is what I'm thinking of, because perfect. You always talk about football weather, right, Chris? What's the perfect weather? You can't get much perfect.

Sixty five in early January. Like, let's just do that. Let's have it happen.

It doesn't matter in the lines. We go anywhere. We'll play by you.

We're winning this. Oh, God. OK. Send us to Mars. Send us to the Iceland, Greenland, any land. All right, TJ. This land is your land.

This land is my land. It don't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

It's marvelous. Speaking of that, the unexpected can happen any time. You need to think about things like life insurance in advance and ethos makes it easy as one, two, three. Just choose your coverage. Apply in minutes and get covered in real time with no medical exam. Just answer a few simple health questions and you're on your way with up to two million dollars of term life protection. With policy starting as low as two dollars a day, ethos is approving over two thousand families a day for life insurance protection.

Go to ETHOS.com. All right, gents, we didn't do this this last week because, you know, Christmas fell on a Wednesday. Yeah. Yeah.

And we were dark. We were off the whole week. It's time for the power rankings after a one week hiatus. Let's go ahead and hit it. Hit it.

Hit it. This is power rankings. Power rankings. All right, ladies and gentlemen, it's power rankings. I need my music. Here we go.

I start with. Here's the thing. It's next week's power rankings as well. We're just going to only have 14 teams left. So you've got teams that are on the outside looking and sniffing it.

And then you've got teams that already have clinched playoff spots that aren't even going to be in my top 10 power rankings list here entering weeks 18. The finale of of the terrific National Football League season. Number 10 on this list are the Washington commanders, 11 wins for the first time since 1991. They got Jonathan Allen back on defense.

They're getting healthier. Austin Eckler is now back for this offense that has Jayden Daniels absolutely cooking with gas. He is going to try and get the six seed right here to go and maybe visit Los Angeles for a fantastic super wildcard weekend opening match up with the Rams. The Washington commanders are in the playoffs as an 11 win team, and they are getting better each and every week. That big win against the Eagles followed up with what they did against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday Night Football puts them in my top 10 number nine on this list.

I am putting the soon to be NFC South champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers on this list at number nine. I know you always every single time I mentioned the Buccaneers are a top 10 team, you always have a problem with this guy on the screen would push back on it. They got Mike. They got Mike Evans getting ready for a thousand yard season. Our friend Bucky Irving is part of a terrific running back room defensively. They've got players on every level. They think they've got it going, man. And just because they're in the NFC South with just nine wins, I think they're going to wind up with 10 wins. And I think they are going to be a team that has a clear shot to make it to the final four of their conference. Once again, I put them number nine on my list and just hold all applause to the end.

All right. Number eight. I'm putting the NFC West champion Los Angeles Rams right here. They've won five in a row. They've got some momentum going. They've won all of those five games. They've won in various manners of victory, a boat race, 44 to 42 game, a track meet game against the Buffalo Bills. They might be the last team to beat the Buffalo Bills all year long.

Who knows? And then the last three games defensively. It's amazing how they put up 44 against the Bills and gave up 42 against the Bills. And then since then, they've won 12 to 6, 19 to 9 and 13 to 9. They're winning games on the defensive side of the ball. They're putting it all together and we'll see how they do going into the playoffs. They're number eight on my power rankings list. Number seven on the power rankings list. I understand that they just lost a game and I understand that they keep proving that they're not winning games against the top competition in their conference. But I'm still putting the Green Bay Packers as a top seven team on this list. I'm putting Green Bay right there despite having just lost in Minnesota.

They're 11 and 5. I love Josh Jacobs. I love their defense playing the way that they're playing. Jair Alexander being out now for the rest of the season is concerning. But I'm putting the Green Bay Packers here at seven.

I might still be living in the past a little bit from last year's finish. But I'm putting them right there. Number six to round out the bottom five, the Baltimore Ravens also at 11 and 5. They're number six right there on my power rankings list with Lamar being an MVP.

Zay Flowers is now a pro bowler defensively. They've tightened the bolts a little bit. They've got Derrick Henry running downhill about to turn 31 years of age on you.

They've got it all working. And I still think they're one of the top teams in the National Football League. Despite some pushback, I might be getting number six, the Ravens now to the top five.

OK, I know that God is going to be tough. I know. I know they've got 14 wins. And I know they've got 14 wins.

And I know I've been talking about them all year long, but I'm putting the Detroit Lions here. Wow. I know.

Wow. I know I'm going to get a lot of Honolulu Blue pushback here. But I'm just still I'm still nervous about their defense. And I know they just came up with two Kirby Joseph interceptions, man.

I get it. I know that's I'm just nervous for what happens when rubber meets road in the playoffs. And it's entirely possible they wind up on the road and they're going to have to put their perfect road record to good use when it all comes down to it.

I don't know how it's going to all turn out. I still am not going to jump off that bandwagon that they're Super Bowl champs. I mean, NFC champs going to the Super Bowl.

But at this point in time, I just got to use my own two eyes and and be realistic about it. They're five. Number four on this list are the Philadelphia Eagles.

And the only reason why I'm putting them this low is I would have popped them this low. I've done the power rankings last week, having lost to the Washington commanders. What an impressive win that was against the Dallas Cowboys. I understand the Cowboys didn't have CD lamb. They don't have deck. They don't have this. They don't have that. They had they had their third string quarterback throw two touchdowns on them after they won a game.

Essentially, it was already salted away with Kenny Pickett, their backup having won it. They're number four on the list playing a superb football on both sides. I'm putting the Buffalo Bills at number three. And I know this is going to piss off, you know, Bill's mafia that I'm putting the bills below the Kansas City Chiefs right here. But the Chiefs the Chiefs are number two. I'm popping the Chiefs up right now because the way that they are playing is off the charts. I've got three hundred and twenty yard and three touchdown performance from Patrick Mahomes and an eight catch. Eighty four yard performance of the touchdown from Travis Kelce on a Christmas day. They went three and oh in those three games in 11 days defensively. They just punked the Steelers without Chris Jones.

They are playing at the top of their game going into this this playoff season in which they will absolutely have the road to the AFC playoffs go through Arrowhead. But I'm finally doing it, Chris. Wow. I'm fine. I'm finally putting the Minnesota Vikings atop my power.

Wow. They are playing sky high. They have a 10 game win streak right now. They went from five and oh to five and two, pardon me, a nine game win streak right now.

They're trying to win their tenth in a row. And right now they've got the better unit functioning on both sides of the ball consistently over the past two months than any other team that I've just mentioned in the power rankings. So the Minnesota Vikings for the first time since I think what, like week four or week five when they were five and oh are topping my power rankings list and the Steelers have dropped out and I still just couldn't put the charges on there.

We'll see if they can make me eat crow. But basically that's my power rankings list. Entering week 18 Vikings atop Chiefs, Bills, Eagles, Lions, Ravens, Packers, Rams, Buccaneers and commanders. That's my power rankings list.

Gents? I thought the lines were low. I actually like it. These are the 10 best teams. I might have had Green Bay. Green Bay might have been 10. Washington ahead of Tampa maybe. And I would have put the Chiefs number one. I'm just saying.

Well, really, you wouldn't know. He's trying to turn down the heat. He's trying to turn down.

He has to because they're trying to turn down 50 and one. And they're not the best team in the league. I've been trying to tell you that for 17 weeks now. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Brockman trying to turn down the heat. Well, we'll come back. We'll talk New England Patriots football because that's what helped turn the heat up on Chris the last time we talked about the Chiefs and the Patriots together. One one's dynastic.

The other one is trying to win football games instead of the first overall pick. That's. Welcome to the jungle, clones. It's the Jim Rome Show podcast, the greatest and loyal fan base ever. You, the clones. It all starts with the jungle. We're in it to win it. And I'm in it to go as hard as I possibly can every day to make sure that you clones get the best possible product every single day. Day one. All in. Let's freaking go. The Jim Rome Show.

Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You met Lala Kent on Vanderpump Rules. Now, Lala and her friends share everything on Give Them Lala. Bagel, everybody says I say that weird. It is ruined by a proposal story. How Jason proposed. And she was like, he brought in a bunch of bagels.

I was like, I have to stop. I will punch you in the throat. If you ever tell this story again and call it a bagel.

But he'll tell you. Now, when I tell the story, I go, he went and got breakfast. There you go. Bagels. Yeah.

Watch what Lala is talking about on YouTube or search for Give Them Lala wherever you listen. Got a text during the commercial break, guys. I think we were able to turn this turn this around, I believe. He's a friend of our program, but I won't let go of his bone. It's Carl Anthony Towns, guys.

Oh, goodness. Yeah, I mean, by the way, Kat is balling. Did you see the stat last night?

He's like, that's his fourth 30 and 20 game of the year, which is something that hasn't been done since Patrick Ewing, like 30 years ago. My fantasy team. They're eating the cat.

Yeah, they're crushing Cooper right now. Poor Coop. I don't feel good about that, by the way. That's OK. It's all right. Listen, you just you're like Kramer in the dojo with the 13 year olds. You're just taking over right now.

All right. Hit it. This is what Carl Anthony Towns caught his eye on the old X machine as this fan in Philadelphia during the carton of the Cowboys game. What does a cowboy fan do after winning the Super Bowl?

Turn the Xbox off. The exact reason why the Eagles ain't winning nothing. I'm putting I'm putting the heebie jeebies on. The Eagles ain't winning nothing. They should have got that rushing record.

That's the only thing they're going to win this year. So after dropping 30 and 20, he's like, he's like, you're just thinking, come on, thinking about what's next. What's next for TJ? Man, what are the things coming? What are we going to what are we going to see?

Can I spring march during the spring in March? Oh, man. Get back in here, man. What a legend. Cat in the studio is going to be like a favorite player.

Turn the Xbox off has been called. I mean, that's so good from a franchise with one Super Bowl win. They do a lot of yapping. Eagles fans are inventive. That is for sure.

No doubt about it. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show, everybody. All right, Chris, you wanted Drake May sat in Jacoby Bressett, starting for the final game of the regular season against the Buffalo Bills. Because why do you want Drake May maybe rehabbing something in the offseason? You need him being healthy and then you need to get that first overall pick so you can either trade that pick for a whole Kings ransom to get a whole bunch of players in there to make Dre, make Drake may better, make the Patriots better because they don't need a quarterback.

They could move down and maybe get Travis Hunter and picks. And that is the that is the ideal for you, right? Like that is your. Well, guess who's starting against the Buffalo Bills and say, Rocky, don't tell me it's Drake May, Rocky, Rocky, Rocky, Rocky. Yeah. Let's hear from your coach about the thought process.

Hit it. He's a he's a competitor. He wants to play.

And look, he's still developing. So he'll be ready to go. So if he wants to play, will he start? Drake is our starting quarterback. If he's healthy and ready to go as we go through this week of practice and he'll play. Why would he play? This is insane.

Come on, Chris. That's insane. I don't know why you're asking it, by the way. Could you imagine anybody ever asking Bill Belichick if the player wants to play, will you play him? Right.

Imagine. Yeah, those are questions that would never have been asked the New England coach in the last twenty five years, you know, which is the whole point here is that Bill's gone. The media doesn't the media doesn't know what to do with itself. Bill's gone.

They're asking questions they never would have gotten away with. Right. And what's what's the coach supposed to say? No, here's what we're going to do. We're going to tank. Everybody's talking about my hot seat around here. I'm going to tell all these grown ass men in the room. Yeah, your jobs are safe.

Don't worry about it. We're just going to sit Drake May. Yeah. They're out there and play. They're not going to tank. Everybody in New England is playing for their job.

Literally, except Drake May, like him and Christian Gonzalez, who is recovering from a concussion. I don't know if it's quite protocol. Those are the only two guys that are safe, like everyone else. They do whatever you want. Those two guys should not be playing until next year. What are we doing?

I guess the I guess the cautionary tale job. Look at it. Look at the Giants right now, right? The Giants are going into Philadelphia. All they got to do last week is just lose. You know, all they had to do is last week is lose with Drew Locke right against the Colts. And instead, they want a game that, you know, if Chidor Sanders winds up in Tennessee or Cleveland or somebody jumps the line and takes Chidor and then Cam Ward's gone. And then what do they do?

They're sitting there. What at fourth overall? Maybe they maybe they maybe they get Travis Hunter, put him in New York City, have him start playing both sides of the ball. Well, Chris, all you got to do is just lose one more game and you got that first overall pick. But if if the Titans lose to the Texans, which is entirely possible and you guys win with Drake May. Tennessee's in the catbird seat, man. I would imagine Will Levis would be history.

Wouldn't you see that happen? He's gone no matter what. I mean, even if the Titans are the second pick, they're taking a quarterback, right? No, I think. Well, obviously, to hold on to him, he could be a good backup.

I guess so. If that's what you think, he's going to be in the league. You got him under contract for two years. There's no reason to get rid of him.

I saw somebody. People were throwing out takes for next year already. Someone said Kirk Cousins to Cleveland.

Did you did you see that bouncing around yesterday? Why? Because it's the Stefanski thing.

You know, he's the Minnesota guy and Kirk was the Minnesota guy and he can't move right now. Why would you want one? Good lord.

They already got they're already overpaying somebody in in Cleveland who can't move around like you used to. What are you going to get? You start collecting like like snow globes. What are you doing? Like lawn deers as to shake it up to get some action.

Like a snow globe. That's what you're doing. It's like a menagerie of quarterbacks who are overpaid and can't who can't move like they used to anymore. The top of this draft is going to be so, so interesting. You know, we're assuming that that's the order because it wasn't the week before the week before.

Remember, I remember when Dion came on and asked him about, you know, a plan for his son. He's just like, yeah, Giants or Raiders Raiders Raiders have won twice since then. Right. Raiders are down at eight. Long gone. They're down at eight. You know, so I don't want to think.

No one's taking a look at the path. Get a stick. If stick at number one, no one wants to make a deal. Fine. Take Travis Hunter and and move on. But at some point, Drake Drake, he's going to have to outscore Mitch Trubisky, pal, because, you know, you know, the bills are going to do, you know, you know, the bills are going to just throw Josh Allen out there for a couple of right. But they'll throw him out there for a couple of drives. Right.

Because they're just nutty enough to do something like that. Keep him. He's just keeps himself healthy. He can protect himself. Well, it's not like the Pats have enough firepower to come back from two scores down.

So I mean, if Josh Allen scores, I don't know, guys, we're good to go. I don't know. I don't know, man.

I don't know. Just it could be the there's there's your guy. There's your guy.

I do love down. He knows what would be best for me is to lose today. That is what's best for him to know that. Look at him. Fresh face. Brought out bushy tailed for the New England Patriots. He's healthy. I mean, you know, Will Campbell, we need the Calvin Bay, all of them. We need everybody. Every lineman available. Somebody. T. Higgins, take take our bag.

Let's go. And then the question is, will this be the last game for Mike McCarthy on the sideline? Oh, there's a lot of potential last games on Sunday. Aaron Rodgers talking about maybe being his last game. Yeah, he's going to make that. He said he's going to make the decision. Well, it's not going to be Devonte Adams. Last game with the Jets.

Right. I can't believe the funny meme. I don't know if you guys saw the funny meme going around of like, remember how they had that super sneaky reveal that he was coming on Pat show?

And it was like, oh, this great big secret reveal just to go to an eight. Typical typical of the New York Jets. And they had no all of it. No pro bowlers either. Right. No pro bowlers on the job. That's all that talent. And how the hell is there not a single problem?

I have no idea what's in the game. But the Giants have one. They got Dexter Lawrence. He deserved it. That's how good he was. He hasn't played for the last month and he's a pro bowler.

He's unbelievable. All right. So next hour, well, Damian Woodie is going to join us. So, Chris, you and I will both have misery.

A company. Yes, sir. Former Jet, former Patriot Damian Woodie from ESPN is about to join us. We'll chop up some some ball with him.

And then I got to we'll talk about those pro bowl rosters as well. And there's a Damian Woodie next right here on the Rich Eisen Show. We're back with our final hour of our Thursday show coming up. Overreaction Monday. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. It's Game Over. Over, man.
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-01-02 17:22:45 / 2025-01-02 17:46:22 / 24

Get The Truth Mobile App and Listen to your Favorite Station Anytime