Alabama’s Blunder (Hour 1)

Live from the play show yet not overly ostentatious studios of CBS Sports Radio here in beautiful New York City sitting on top of the 10th floor of 345 Hudson Street for the first time in 2024.

Welcome on in to the Zach Gelb show but where else on CBS Sports Radio across all the great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates, Sirius XM channel 158, the free Odyssey app and of course streaming on YouTube. Happy New Year! I said it to you once, it's the last time I'm going to say it to you. That is a big pet peeve of mine when you start to get like a day or two past New Year's and then it's like for a week or even a month or two months, people start to go Happy New Year each and every day. So this is not me just being obnoxious. This is not me being angry to start the New Year.

I give you a heartfelt Happy New Year. It happens once and then we move on and we get to the sports as we have so much to get to today. You can always give me a call 855-212-4CBS, 855-212-4227, interact with me on the good old cesspool of Twitter or on Instagram or I'm always straight flexing at Zach Gelb.

That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. We got a full house today. Stuart Kovacs, welcome on back for a day. We got Moist Mike as well. We're rocking and rolling all the way up until 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific. Greg McElroy who is the former Alabama quarterback was also on the call last night for Washington and Texas.

He's going to stop by an hour from now. And I'm in a elated mood today. If you listen to this show, you know I root and cheer for the Michigan Wolverines. I don't dislike Alabama for years. I've loved Nick Saban. I still love Nick Saban as a head football coach but getting to know some of those guys on the Michigan football team through the show like Chris Jenkins and Blake Corum and Roman Wilson, I am just thrilled for not only them but also a lot of the alums of Michigan that I know. And two of them are my closest friends and I was watching with about like 15 to 20 Michigan alums yesterday. And what a scene that was in them going to the Rose Bowl and taking down Alabama in what was a sloppy but close, hard hitting and really fun football game where ultimately Michigan's defense prevailed and also a lot of questionable decisions by Alabama.

We'll get to that in a second. And then the other game. I was happy because I heard Hickey was taking Alabama to win the game. So the moment I heard that I put a lot of money down, you know, in Zach Hill betting world, a lot of money.

It's not like Dave Portnoy or something like that. But I did take the Wolverines minus two and a half. Never a doubt. And then I told you all week, Washington continues to get disrespected left and right. And I, you know, to see them after being a nine and a half point underdog to Oregon win that game outright and didn't really have to sweat it out, even though it got a little bit close at the end. And then to go up against Texas, where Washington, if you watch college football this year, no disrespect to Texas at a remarkable season, Washington should have been the favorite in this game. And I was getting four and a half points. So I parlayed that together with Michigan, then minus two and a half are on the money line.

I forget what I did and I ended up winning two bets. But if you listen to this show, you know that we're friendly with Kalen DeBoer. And I'm elated now because this is what transpires when you get to a national championship game.

Your whole life story gets untold and we now get to see and it unfolds and you get to see it be told to everyone. Now everyone's going to understand the crazy career of Kalen DeBoer, where as a baseball player when he was in college, he had five twenty his senior season. Let me say that again. He had five twenty his senior season as a baseball player at Sioux Falls. And oh, yeah, by the way, he was the all time leading receiver in receptions, receiving yards and then also touchdowns.

So just that alone would be a remarkable accomplishment. Then becomes the head coach of Sioux Falls, goes sixty seven and three, wins three NAIA championships. And then, oh, yeah, by the way, goes to Fresno State.

He goes nine and three in his second year, gets the job at Washington. In the last two years, he's only had two losses and now he coaches for a national championship on Monday night. So this is a phenomenal matchup. These are the two best teams in college football we'll have all week.

And assuming that the weather holds up and the airlines are good, I will be doing the show live Monday in Houston. And I'll be going to the game right after the show ends. But I just love this matchup between Michigan and Washington. And when you look at guys like Blake Coram and Michael Pennix, I don't know if there are two better representatives that really display what college football is all about. Then the star running back for Michigan and the man that finished as the runner up as the star quarterback for the Heisman Trophy for the Washington program. Then Blake Coram and Michael Pennix.

All right. We will get to the national championship game throughout the week. But the two biggest takeaways and the two biggest talking points from both of these games was the play calling at the end by Tommy Reese and the coaching at the end by Nick Saban in the Alabama-Michigan game. And then also when you get into Texas and Washington, Washington had that thing gift wrap. It was one and they almost blew the game at the end of the game. But they did not. Let's start with Alabama and Michigan.

And I want to open it up, something we rarely do, with some audio. Here is Nick Saban on the final play call. It was fourth and goal as Michigan was on defense, Alabama on offense, and Alabama who was down by seven because Coram put the ball in the end zone on Michigan's first drive in overtime.

Alabama had to answer and here was the play and this was Saban talking about the final play against Michigan. We called three plays. The fact that it didn't work made it a really bad call. But we called timeout because we had a bad look. We had a good look on the first one.

They must have known it. But Tommy just felt like the best thing that we could do was have a quarterback run, which was kind of our two-point play. But we didn't get it blocked so it didn't work. We didn't execute it very well and it didn't work. And they pressured and we thought they would pressure, but we thought we could gap them and block them and make it work.

And it didn't. I actually have a different take than most people because most of the people that I've heard talk about this have been obliterating the play call. I actually don't have a problem with the fourth and goal play call that Tommy Reese and Alabama dialed up at the three. My biggest problem were the three plays before that because you have Milro, who Michigan could not stop for most of the day on the ground. And that was the difference in the second half.

Once they started running the ball more with Milro, Alabama for a chunk of the second half took control of the game. He picks up a big carry to get you down to the nine and you don't use his legs on first down, second down, or third down. They didn't run the ball one time with Milro after getting a big chunk by their quarterback to get you to first and goal at the nine. And you save to use his legs until fourth down.

I would have run him earlier in that sequence. But on the final play, I can't really crush the play call because it was an awful snap. And not only was it an awful snap, which was a problem for Alabama all throughout the game, and Milro in the center were never on the same page. But the right tackle also got blown up by Josiah Stewart, who is a transfer from Coastal Carolina. And Milro tripped over his lineman because Stewart, who does not have the weight advantage compared to the lineman, blew him right off the ball.

And if you had to kind of say that's this game in a nutshell, it was that final play. And I guess you could argue, oh, maybe Milro should have thrown the ball to the back, maybe he should have followed the pulling right guard. But when you have a bad snap, you panic, especially when it's a bad snap with not only the game on the line, but your season on the line and a spot of the national championship game on the line.

And when you panic, you go to what you do best, and that's to run the ball and bulldoze through people. So that's what Milro did, and yeah, sure, I don't know what the other two play calls were. There was a timeout by Michigan, there was a timeout by Alabama, and then you heard from Nick Saban, right, the great coach himself, that they changed the play call the two times after the timeout. So they had three different plays, and the third play, when you're at the two or three yard line and you're basically running your two point conversion plays, you only have so many of those plays. So there were other options on that play that maybe Milro could have done better, but I'm not going to crush that fourth down play call because you had a Stewart blow up the play and the center caused chaos from the jump with a poor snap. So that's kind of my takeaway on that play, but it's the three plays prior to that, where for the life of me, I don't get it because I was watching that game. And even though I was rooting for Michigan, like objectively, I'm trying to watch that game and I didn't understand the approach by Alabama. I thought they threw the ball too much in the first half, and then Milro got going in the second half.

They were never able to put the game away. Michigan, when they needed to get a drive, Harbaugh was as aggressive as aggressive he could be going for it in that fourth down and two, and that was the right decision to do that. And you got the first down, you eventually get the Roman Wilson touchdown to tie up the game, and then in overtime, you knew it was going to be the Blake Coram show because you live and die based off your best player in a game like that. And Blake Coram carried that team to a victory. And for Alabama, their best offensive player is Jalen Milro.

And that's what I didn't like. It wasn't the fourth down play call, because as we've now discussed for the last few minutes, there was a lot of chaos that transpired in that play. But how do you go away from Milro with back to back runs on first and second down with your running back, then on third down Milro makes that pass, which good play by the Michigan defender to keep the receiver out of the end zone. And you wait all the way on fourth down, after getting what I think was 15 to set up first and goal on the nine, you wait until fourth down to run the ball with your quarterback, which was your biggest strength on offense, not only in that game, but in this entire season when Alabama got going.

So that's my problem with the decision making. It was waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting until your season was on the line on fourth down to run that football with Jalen Milro. Now, in the entirety of the game, Alabama almost won the game off their brilliance on special teams. The punter was phenomenal in the game. The field goal kicker was phenomenal, but in the same breath as we praise the special teams for Alabama, I almost pulled my hair out with the punt return decisions by Michigan. Once you botched the first punt, I don't care where the ball is rolling to. Don't touch another punt.

And then when you're trying to get the ball back late after your defense makes the stop, you put a new punt returner in there who has returned punts for them before this season, and he's backpedaling. And I'm like, oh, no, that TikTok song. Oh, no. Oh, no.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no. And he dropped the ball. And thankfully, he picked up the ball at the one-yard line because even though he got blown back into the end zone, it's where you pick up the ball in the initial contact, not where you finish. But if he would have picked up that ball in the end zone, it would have been a safety, and that would have been maybe the most demoralizing way you could have ever lost a football game. So the special teams were enormous in this game, and Alabama, I thought the reason why they lost that game was really because in the trenches, they didn't dominate the game like they were expected to.

That offensive line, I think it was Herb Street or Fowler, one of them said it's like bigger than a lot of the offensive lines in the NFL. How that offensive line got manhandled, and it wasn't even by the defense alignment, Michigan used their speed by their linebackers and then also their safeties and their corners to get to the quarterback very easily. So I give Michigan's defensive game plan a lot of credit, and then when the game was starting to get away, they trusted their two best offensive players, and that was Blake Coram and J.J. McCarthy to carry that team. So that was a sloppy game. That was a fun game.

That was an exhilarating game. There is no doubt about it, but it's wild how Michigan didn't even play great. Michigan made countless mistakes, and every Tom, Dick, and Harry would have said this before the game, if Michigan would have made the mistakes that they made, oh, there's no way they would have won the game, right?

What would everyone say? You can't make mistakes up against the great Nick Saban and find a way to win. But it just shows you how great this Michigan team is, because you know what great teams do?

They find a way to win when they don't play their best. And there was a moment in the first half where Michigan clearly was the better team, but they didn't have a big enough advantage at halftime. And then the second half, Alabama got rolling. But when they needed a drive to tie up the game, they got it. And then when they got the ball first in overtime, they marched right down the field, Blake Coram put the ball in the end zone, and they said Michigan's defense, go win the game.

And you saw a center have a bad snap, a right tackle get blown up, and then also just stupid decision making on first down and second down, where Alabama did not run Jalen Milro after getting a big chunk with Milro, and Michigan punches their ticket to the national championship game. And I'll tell you now, just hearing the conversation from today, the biggest story heading into that national championship game is something that we've covered on this show for the entire season. It's the future of Jim Harbaugh. Jim Harbaugh hires Don Yee. Don Yee, Tom Brady's agent, right? Don Yee is an NFL agent, and he's a very successful one. And you had that report that Harbaugh was offered $125 million contract by Michigan.

He hasn't signed it yet, and it's been as clear as clear could be the last three years. The moment Jim Harbaugh gets an NFL offer, he's going to leave. But does winning a national championship maybe make him stay, or is it the perfect time to bolt? Personally, I do believe this is going to be the biggest storyline heading into the game, and I do think on Monday night this is going to be Jim Harbaugh, regardless of the result. I do believe this is going to be his final game as the Michigan head coach, because unlike the last two years, I think he gets an NFL job offer to return as a head coach.

And I don't fault him for a second for taking it, because the NCAA is about to throw just like a stupid, petty fight, and they're going to go back and forth at Harbaugh, and they're going to try to suspend him, I would imagine, for a big chunk of next season. So, on the Michigan side, there is no doubt about it, the story all throughout the week, and I think the biggest story heading into this national championship game is going to be Jim Harbaugh. On the Washington side, it's the brilliance of Penix, and also Kalen DeBoer, and right now, on this Tuesday, the second day of the year, my early thought in the game is the best defense for Michigan up against Michael Penix Jr. is going to actually be the offense of Michigan. If Michigan's going to win this game, they are going to have to bleed the clock, they are going to have to run the football, which is one of their strengths, and they're going to need Blake Coram and also Donovan Edwards to go on these long, methodical drives that takes off a lot of time off the clock and keeps Michael Penix on the sideline. They do that, this is a Coram and Edwards game, Michigan will win. If Coram and Edwards don't have a great game, and they can't bleed the clock, then Washington will win. Alright, this is Zach Gilp's show on CBS Sports Radio, how do you react to that final decision by Tommy Reese and Nick Saban?

855-212-4CBS, 855-212-4227, we will take a timeout, when we come on back, we talk about the sensational story of the Washington Huskies and the one that almost got away. There were two decisions late in that game that I just could not believe when I was watching it play out. Alrighty, five minutes will come on back, it is the Zach Gilp's show, 17 after the hour right here on CBS Sports Radio. Alrighty, this is Zach Gilp's show on CBS Sports Radio, so we recap the Alabama-Michigan thrilling game, and then the second game, you knew this was going to be high scoring. You knew that this was going to be fun, but in that second half, it looked like Washington was going to run away with this thing.

And I think there's two takes from this game. Number one, I don't believe any player from yesterday improved his draft stock more than Michael Penix Jr. And, you know, this is the weird part with college football, because we so passionately love college football on this network, and I know there's a lot of great college football fans through North America, but it's amazing that it took until yesterday. And I don't know, maybe it's the casual fans, where you had Washington be undefeated, and it took until yesterday for people to realize that Michael Penix Jr. is like this stud. And he should absolutely be a first round pick, we'll see how he will transition from being a college quarterback to an NFL quarterback, but I'm not going to doubt him, because I already doubted him once. And that was when he was at Indiana, and I didn't think he was that great of a quarterback, and he could never stay healthy. But what he's done, not just this year, but also last year, has been phenomenal.

The last two seasons, they've only lost two games, and they lost those two games by a combined, like, eight points or less. So what Penix has been able to do at Washington, not only salvaged his college career, but he is going to hear his name called somewhere in the first round. And this is a good team player, this is a good leader, there's going to be no character flaws with Michael Penix Jr., and wait until the interviews. He is going to jump right up the draft boards, and we'll see, maybe, you know, I still got to think Williams and Drake May are going to be the two quarterbacks off the board, but to then see who's going to be that third quarterback off the board is going to be fascinating. Now I don't believe that J.J. McCarthy will be a great pro, but his name will be in the mix.

You'll have Jayden Daniels from LSU, the Heisman Trophy winner will be in the mix, and then also you've got to have Michael Penix Jr. in the mix for the third quarterback off the board. But I know Penix has a ton of great wide receivers, but to see the ball placement that he had yesterday, like, that's what he's been doing for the majority of this season. I know down the stretch offensively they weren't great, but them not being great down the stretch offensively while they still found a way to maintain an undefeated record, it actually helped out their defense.

Because it put more pressure on the defense, and this Washington defense has done a complete 180 from where they were in the beginning of the season, and before the season, to how they won some games down the stretch. Now, I don't think Penix should have won the Heisman. I don't think it was egregious to vote for him to win the Heisman.

Heck, he was second on my ballot. I don't love when people go, oh, this is why the Heisman Trophy should be awarded after the college football playoff game. Like, that's not how it works. It is a regular season and a conference championship weekend award. It's like in baseball. The MVP, well, baseball, they give it out way after the postseason, but it's not based off what happens in the postseason, it's based off what happened in the regular season. And Penix had an argument to be made. But the reason why Daniels, and the definition is who's the most outstanding player in college football, that's the criteria.

The passing numbers were excellent between Daniels, Nix, and then also Michael Penix Jr. But when you have Jayden Daniels run for 1,100 yards, that's what got him the separation, even though he did not have big victories because his defense was god-awful at LSU. But we don't really need to spend much on the Heisman Trophy conversation because Michael Penix, Heisman Trophy or not, it doesn't matter.

We've seen that before. Guys not win the Heisman, and then they go in a playoff game when the other guy's sitting at home, and then they're going to play for a national championship on Monday night. But yesterday, just from a momentum standpoint, even though we shouldn't have needed it, this team continues to get disrespected.

Michael Penix continues to get disrespected. It was actually refreshing for people to finally open their eyes, check their vision, and understand how great of a quarterback this guy is. But at the end of the game, and I love Kalen DeBoer.

I was talking to him this morning. There's no bigger fan on the national media, national talk shows of Kalen DeBoer than me. I've been on this Kalen DeBoer train for years. But at the end of the game, as much as I love Kalen DeBoer, it felt like Washington was trying to snatch the feet from the jaws of victory. Like, they had that game won.

I rarely will do a premature celebratory tweet in a big game like that. This game was over. This game had no chance of actually being a game. And then two decisions made it a game. So they kicked that field goal to go up 37 to 28. They kicked that field goal. And the play before the field goal, I still don't understand why they threw the football. Like, bleed the clock or make Texas use their timeout. And then you go kick your field goal. Because at that rate, it was 244 to go, your third and goal at the 10.

You're not dialing up a touchdown pass. And I know DeBoer is extremely aggressive, but there's a difference in being aggressive and then doing the right thing. And I didn't love the decision by DeBoer on that third and goal at the 10 to throw the football. Now, it leads to a field goal to make it 37 to 28. Now, the next decision you could get on DeBoer, but I also hate the rule as well.

It's like a mixture of both. You know, it's easy for me to do like hindsight is 20-20, a little revisionist history. Third and five at Texas is 39 with 50 seconds to go. And at that rate, Texas has no more timeouts. You got to take a knee there. Like, you have to bleed the clock there. And they didn't do that. So they run the ball with Dylan Johnson, who gets hurt on the play, and I don't even know if he's going to be able to go in the national championship game.

Maybe he is, but I don't know how effective he is. And because he got hurt with 45 seconds left, it's an injury timeout. So that's like an injury timeout. It stops the clock.

And when you get the player off the field, it's not like the clock resumes and you could waste all that time. So you had an injury timeout there occur on that play, and then Texas gets the ball back, and I'm sitting there watching that game, and I'm like, oh my God, this is going to be an all-time choke job. Like, I didn't think anything was going to top, especially when you have the brands of Michigan and Alabama, right? It's the SEC. It's the Big Ten. It's Harbaugh.

It's Saban. I knew, regardless of how the games played out yesterday, that the number one topic on every national show was going to be something on Tuesday regarding the Rose Bowl between Michigan and Alabama. But if Texas puts that ball in the end zone at the end of the game, I think the lead would have been one of the all-time epic meltdowns and epic collapses that we've ever seen. Because that game with 240-something to go, it was over.

The fat lady was already singing. It was turn out the lights, the party's over, and when they got inside the 30, I don't know what the heck Sark and Texas was doing. Like, everyone today is talking about the final play call for Alabama.

How about, like, the short passes at the end, right? That one to the right made no absolute sense by Texas. And I know the DB made a great play to knock that ball away at the end, but Texas was on the verge of, like, the ultimate Texas-is-back moment, right? And I give a lot of credit to Sark for what they did this year to just get to that spot.

It's remarkable. They were expected to win the Big 12, and now you go into the SEC. But they almost won a game that they had no business winning. And Washington made a one-and-a-half egregious, you could even say two, egregious mistakes at the end of the game. And thankfully for them, because that would have been a miserable way for Washington to lose the season after they had a remarkable season, and it will continue on Monday.

That would have been all-time bad. Like, there are moments in sports of teams choking. Like, for me, the one that I remember the most was when the Yankees were up 3-0 against the Red Sox.

You know, if you talk to my uncle Ben in Philly, he'll tell you about the 64 Phillies, right? Like, there are just some teams that you remember all-time epic choke jobs. But that Washington one could have been at the near tippy, tippy top of the list if they would have blown that and they would have allowed a touchdown at the end. So, geez, crazy, because Texas had no business winning that game, and when they're driving everyone in America, I don't care if you had family on Washington, you are thinking, wow, they're going to blow this game. And I did find it intriguing how the TV cameras when Texas was struggling kept on showing Arch Manning with Malik Murphy now transferring to Duke. And that's going to be a big conversation here, is does Quinn Ewers come back? And if Quinn Ewers comes back, how do you not start the guy that won you a Big 12 championship this year, was playing a college football playoff? But it did feel last night that it is time to get the Arch Manning era underway.

I'm not saying in the game last night, but now the baton should be passed over. But I also, I don't think Quinn Ewers to me is a pro quarterback. Like, he'll get drafted. I don't think he's going to be a successful pro quarterback. Like, if I was him, I would go back to Texas. But you know, especially now playing a tougher schedule in the SEC, the moment Ewers struggles and Ewers also got hurt back to back seasons, there's no more Malik Murphy there.

So you can't use him as a buffer because he's also really damn good. He's now off to Duke to delay Arch Manning getting on the field. So I do think Ewers should come back, but selfishly, I'm hoping he goes to the pros because I'm ready to see Arch Manning after all the hoopla that we've heard about him for the last few years. Alrighty, this is Zach Gelb's show on CBS Sports Radio.

It is a Tuesday. We'll do overreaction, proper reaction next. To recap what was another crazy week in the NFL, one more week to play in the regular season with week 18 getting underway on Saturday. Greg McElroy going to join us. He was on the call for the Sugar Bowl between Washington and Texas, also the former Alabama quarterback. We'll get his reaction on the ending of that Alabama-Michigan game.

That will come your way in about 20, 25 minutes from now. But first up, with the latest CBS Sports Radio update, I have not wished him a happy new year yet. I wanted to wait to save it until we got on the air.

Also, I didn't see him really before the show. Anyway, a happy and a healthy new year to the one and only Rich Ackerman and he has the latest CBS Sports Radio update. The Chime Credit Builder Visa credit card is issued by the Bancorp Bank N.A. or Stride Bank N.A. members FDIC. Late payment may negatively impact your credit score.

Results may vary. Alright, the defensive player of the week is sponsored by the Navy Federal Credit Union who proudly serves the armed forces, DoD veterans and their families. Your members are on the mission.

Learn more at navyfederal.org. This week's player is Jaguars defensive lineman, linebacker Josh Allen. In Sunday's 26-0 win over the Panthers, Allen had three sacks to increase his total to 16 and a half on the season, which is third in the league behind only T.J. Watt and Trey Hendrickson. And I actually think, I have to double check on this, but I believe that this is the third time this season that Josh Allen of the Jaguars has had three sacks in a game. Because I remember two other times, it's got to be, where he had three sacks in a game.

I think like one was early in the season, the other one was midway through the season, and now towards the end of the season, that was I believe his third three sack game on the year. Anyway, without further ado, it is a Tuesday, let's get to a little overreaction, proper reaction. Stu, hit it! Another NFL week is complete, which means it's another week to freak out about your favorite team. Help!

Help! Which takes are truly crazy. But sometimes a game can be so bad, it's almost good, you know what I'm saying? And which are so crazy, they might be right. He's 6'5", he's 245 pounds, he's probably a Popeye's biscuit away from being a tight end. Zach lets you know in this week's edition of Overreaction or Proper Reaction.

Alrighty, Moist Mike, what do we got cooking tonight? Alright, well a team that you've been really sour on for a little while now, I mean you really haven't spoken very highly of this team at all. Who's that? The Baltimore Ravens.

Oh, that's fun. You've been really down on them a lot. Yeah.

And I haven't really heard you say anything positive about them over the past couple weeks. Yeah, I think some jackass that hosts the show here on CBS Sports Radio, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. Eastern. He was the interim guy for a while before they made him the full-time guy. Yeah, yeah. He said like two months ago that this team is a Super Bowl contender, it would be a disappointment if they don't get to the Super Bowl this year. Yeah, I'm not sure who that was, but whoever that was filling in had no idea what they were talking about.

Well the Ravens have clinched the number one team. Zach Zelb? Something like that? I don't remember. Yeah, yeah.

Gap Zelb, I think that's the answer. I wanted to reverse that, but I didn't know how I was going to pronounce that, and I was like, I don't need to get fired the second day into the year. You want to call me Moist Mike? You're Gack from now on.

What's up Gack? Yeah, that won't last that long. The Ravens have clinched the number one seed in the AFC, the only bye in the conference, but head coach John Harbaugh has yet to decide if he'll be resting Lamar and the other starters. I have not made a decision on any personnel yet. We've got to kind of work through the injury part of it first, and that'll take us probably 24 to 48 hours to get a real handle on that. Then we'll make those decisions. We're not going to keep it a secret, Jameson.

We'll let you know what we're going to do once we start practicing. What a week, by the way, for the Harbaugh family. Number one seed for John, and then a national championship game to coach in coming up on Monday for Jim. Well, so overreaction, underreaction, or proper reaction, I'm sorry. It is a mistake to rest your starters if you have a bye. Now, this is not specific to the Ravens. I'm just saying, generally speaking, if you've clinched a first round bye, it is a mistake to bench your starters for the final week of the season when you have that bye. I am going to go with an overreaction, and I think this is maybe the biggest lose-lose ever in sports. Just this topic, because if you play your starters and someone gets hurt, everyone goes, oh, you shouldn't have played your starters. And then if you rest your starters, and usually coming out of a bye week, teams get a little bit sloppy, teams get off to a slow start, people go, oh, you should have played everyone. So I don't think it's a mistake one way or another. I'm fine with either decision, and if the Ravens want to say we're going to rest everybody, I am more than fine with that.

I think it's an overreaction. Now, the Saints stayed alive by beating the Bucks 23-13 on Sunday, moving into a tie for first in the NFC South. The Bucks can still win the division with a win over Carolina.

That's a tough game for them here in Week 18. However, if Tampa does lose to the Panthers... David Tepper, by the way, made the most accurate pass anyone for the Panthers have had this year when he threw that drink on a fan. David Tepper is a pig. He is a jackass, he is an idiot, he is a moron, he is a dope, and he is a petulant brat. How that guy owns a football team, well, we know why. It's because he has a lot of money, but this dude is such a baby, and I'm glad everyone saw who David Tepper was, and here is a message if you are a head coach.

Get $15-20 million if you want to work with that jackass, because that dude thinks he's a football guy, and he will intervene on every single decision. Like, people go, oh, Jim Harbaugh, maybe he'll take the Panthers' job. Jim Harbaugh doesn't need to answer to David Tepper and deal with his shenanigans.

And also, if that was a player who grabbed a beer and threw it into the face of a fan or a drink, the player would be suspended. But we have had no statement from the Carolina Panthers, no accountability from David Tepper, and they're trying to sweep this under the rug. And guess what happens, because Tuesday is usually an off day in the NFL. Everyone walks in tomorrow and Wednesday, they got to talk to the media. Coach got an interim coach got to talk about this. The players got to talk about it because their owner acted like a loser. Grow up, David Tepper, and stop being a loser, because Panthers fans deserve better, and you keep on dropping the ball, and you throw a drink at the fan. Like, come on, I don't care what the fan said to you.

You get up, and you walk away, and you be an adult. Alrighty, Happy New Year, everybody. What do you got for me, Santa? Uh, I was going to go overreaction, proper reaction, David Tepper is a dope, but I'm going to change that.

That's a proper reaction, couldn't tell. However, if Tampa loses to the Panthers, the winners of the St. Falcons game in Week 18 wins the division and makes the playoffs.

So overreaction, proper reaction. The Bucks have the best shot of any of these NFC style teams to win a playoff game. Yes, because they have championship DNA, even though Tom Brady's no longer there.

You have a good defense. The game last week really meant nothing to them. I know they could win the division, but when you have the Panthers in your back pocket the next week, you lose that game, you don't deserve to go. But I do think the Bucks will win, and man, Eagles?

Probably going to be the fifth seed, because I don't think they're winning the NFC East now. Philadelphia has one and done running all over them. I think Tampa could beat Philadelphia. Alright, well, another team that you've been really, really down on, the Buffalo Bills. They won another close one against a bad team, beating the Pats by just seven. Now Buffalo has a crazy possibility in Week 18. A win against the Dolphins, and they win the AFC East and get the number two seed.

However, if they lose with a few of the things happened, they could actually miss the playoffs altogether. Overreaction, proper reaction. Sean McDermott's job is riding on the outcome of Week 18. I think that's an overreaction.

I think he is back either way. I just don't believe Buffalo wants to make a move and move on from Sean McDermott yet. That was even when it got really ugly. That was kind of the sense you got now since they have turned it around. And they should win this game up against the Dolphins.

They beat them by 18 points early in the season. Now the Dolphins don't have Jalen Phillips. Bradley Chubb is now out for the year as well. So I can understand why you make that argument, but ultimately I do not think the Bills fire him either way. So I will go overreaction and say Sean McDermott's job is riding on Week 18. I put $50 on Buffalo to get to the AFC plus $1,000 and I did that back on December 12th. They're now offering me $85 if I want to cash out right now. I think I'm going to let that ride, but I do find that funny how a team that could miss the playoffs, I can now still earn money off them if I wanted to, but over $50 I'm not cashing out.

Alrighty, next one. The Rams are in the playoffs thanks in large part to second year running back Kieran Williams, who is smoking hot right now. He has over 1,000 yards rushing and 9 touchdowns in just his last 9 games, adding 3 more scores yesterday.

Overreaction, proper reaction. With young stars like Williams and Pukunakua, the Rams can still build a title contender next year. Yes, because they also have the proper mix of veterans as long as they stay healthy with Matthew Stafford, who is a criminally underrated quarterback still, with Aaron Donald who is one of the greatest defensive players of all time, and we all know still how great Cooper Cup is, and you have a coach who now wants to come back after a lot of those players and the coach are kind of like one foot in, one foot out on retirement, so I don't think they're that far away.

I will say proper reaction that they could end up being a title contender next year. Alright, now despite being on a 2,000-yard pace for most of the season, it appears like Tyreek Hill will fall short of that mark, 283 yards short of the mark with one game left. Imagine if he got it this weekend. That'd be crazy.

That would be fucked up. That's the only way they're beating the Bills. The NFL record for yards in this season still belongs to Calvin Johnson at 1964.

So overreaction, proper reaction. We will see someone surpass 2,000 receiving yards in the next 5 years. With how much they throw the ball now, I will say that's a proper reaction. I think someone does it because even with, and I know Waddle's hurt right now, but Tyreek and Jalen Waddle having to split reps for the majority of the season, right, because they're both on the field. They're both great players. They both be number one wide receivers on the majority of the team. Tyreek for maybe every team but like one or two in the NFL, depending on who you have. And then Jalen Waddle, heck, he would by far and away be the best offensive player on my team, the Patriots. And look how close Tyreek still got there.

So I think someone will eventually do it. I'll go proper reaction. Alright, now with one week to go, the race for defensive player of the year is coming down to the wire. Currently, the Browns' Miles Garrett is the odds-on favorite at minus 200, followed by Micah Parsons at plus 350, then TJ Watt, who leads the NFL with 17 sacks, at plus 800. So overreaction, proper reaction, Miles Garrett is the best defensive player in the NFL right now. Yeah, I'll go a slight proper reaction, but Steelers fans, don't come for me on social media because I really still believe TJ Watt is just flat-out ridiculous. They're splitting hairs right now. The Browns have just been a better story this season. So it's a stupid answer, but I'll give the edge to Miles Garrett on that one.

Alrighty, there's a little overreaction, proper reaction. This is Zach Gelb's show on CBS Sports Radio. We will take a timeout when we come on back. Greg McElroy is a former Alabama quarterback. We'll get his reaction to the final play call and the final decision by Tommy Reese and the Alabama Crimson Tide. So he was doing the color analyst role last night in the Sugar Bowl for Texas and Washington on ESPN.

So after that game ended late, he woke up early, did his morning radio show on Jocks FM, and hopefully he'll still be awake to join us in five minutes when we return on CBS Sports Radio at the Zach Gelb show. Give them a gift they'll never forget, because they'll still have it years later. American Giant makes clothes that just keep getting better with age, like their iconic full-zip hoodie that's designed to last for decades. Because a gift they'll wear for years is a gift that keeps on giving. So be a gift-giving giant this holiday season at American-Giant.com and get 20% off your first order when you use code GRATEFULAG23. That's 20% off your first order at American-Giant.com. Code GRATEFULAG23.