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00:00Let's get to some of those Tuesday spread lines right here on the early line.
00:03It's on the right side.
00:04It's Joe Ranieri.
00:04And boy, we had a big game last night.
00:06National champions, the Indiana Hoosiers in the NFL.
00:09We're whittling it down now to the final four teams who are looking to be a champion in the NFL.
00:15First spread line, we'll take a look at New England and Denver.
00:17This line, Joe, opened up four and a half, went to five and a half.
00:20Yesterday, while we were doing the show, minus four and a half, it dipped back to.
00:24Today, Joe, back to five and a half.
00:26Stidham's going to be your starting quarterback here for the Denver Broncos
00:28and a total of 41 and a half.
00:31Early week spread line, Joe, for the AFC Championship.
00:33What is it?
00:35Tepid in this game, to say the least, Donnie,
00:37because we know the whole Bo Nix injury obviously is still hanging over this game here.
00:44We did see some early Patriot money.
00:47I mean early Patriot money when this thing first opened up,
00:50and I believe the Bears and the Rams were still in the first half.
00:53We saw four and a half.
00:55We saw it bent up to five and a half.
00:56That's kind of where it stayed yesterday.
00:59Then we saw a couple of spots, Donnie, get right back down to four and a half.
01:04So there seems to be right now kind of a line drawn in the sand at that five and a half number.
01:10So really, four and a halves and five and a halves are available.
01:13Now, I looked ahead, at least as best you can now, to the weather,
01:18and I mean temperatures in the mid to upper 40s, sunny skies, not an issue.
01:24Certainly better than anything the Patriots had to deal with at home against Houston,
01:29and we mostly have seen the total settle right around that 40, 40 and a half number.
01:36But this is the first time, Donnie, and I know you know this,
01:39that a team has been a home underdog in a conference championship since what year, Donnie?
01:44When was it last?
01:45Do you remember?
01:48Give me a hint.
01:50Nick Foles and the Eagles.
01:52Yep.
01:53They were a pup to the Vikings.
01:55And what did they do in that game, Donnie?
01:57Do you remember?
01:58Smoke.
01:58Yeah.
01:59I was there.
02:00Smoke show.
02:00I think they call it, Joe.
02:0238 through 7 is what they did.
02:04So, yeah, it's a no man's land number.
02:07You're never getting a key number in this game.
02:09It's going to be interesting to see.
02:11But the reality is four and a half, five and a half is likely what we're going to be dealing with all week.
02:17By the way, like as soon as this line came out, it's like there's no way Denver can win this game.
02:22Then you see the ticket count, Joe, maybe 25% of the tickets coming in on Denver in this game.
02:26And I start to say to myself, is Denver the right side in this one?
02:29There's a lot to go over.
02:31And Joe and I have this game up and the numbers up all week long.
02:33So, updated temperatures for that game, Joe, around 36, 37 degrees.
02:37But the key, no precipitation and no wins in that game.
02:40Should be a pretty clean slate for New England and Denver here.
02:42Game number two we'll take a look at in the AFC-NFC Championship game Sunday.
02:46That's the Los Angeles Rams and the Seattle Seahawks.
02:49This game, Joe, opened up two and a half.
02:51We still see two and a halves across the board in a total of 47 and a half.
02:55Key injury situations.
02:57Zach Charbonnet, he's down with an ACL.
02:59Offensive line issues possibly for Seattle.
03:01The Rams, after back-to-back road wins in the playoffs, looking to do it a third time here.
03:06The total sits 47 and a half in Seattle.
03:08This one should be a banger, Joe.
03:10What's that spread line early week for you?
03:12Well, we saw a ton of Seattle money.
03:15One and a halves in a lot of spots when this game opened up once the Rams and the Bears were finished.
03:21But then we saw as high as three yesterday, Donnie, in a lot of places.
03:26But now, pretty much two and a halves across the board.
03:30And, you know, the big question is the Sam Darnold oblique injury, right?
03:34Because a lot of people, I believe the public is going to look at this, Donnie, and be like, they won 41 to 6.
03:40Like, what injury?
03:41There's no injury here.
03:43Well, when, you know, Rashid Shahid runs back the opening kickoff for a touchdown, the 49ers turn the ball over and they couldn't stop Seattle on the ground.
03:54Yeah, well, then, you know, there wasn't a whole lot for him to do.
03:57But I think he's going to have a lot more to do this week against the Rams, who are already 2-0 on the road.
04:03It doesn't shock me that it got to three and it settled back into two and a half.
04:07And, Donnie, if we're being honest, I see a situation where you probably get more Rams money closer to the kickoff than you will Seattle money.
04:17Don't forget, Charbonneau actually done for the year with that injury in that game.
04:22Yeah, ticket count here coming in early in the week, Joe.
04:24Roughly balanced, 53% on the Rams, 47% on the Seattle Seahawks.
04:28That'll change this week again when we start to see some of those injury reports come out.
04:31But a little bit of damaged goods here for Seattle, but also Seattle's the home team, rested and ready.
04:35No travel.
04:36The Rams have done a lot of traveling over the past couple weeks here.
04:40End of an hour in Buffalo.
04:41And, no, we're not talking about the stadium here.
04:43That's going to be a new stadium next year.
04:44As we say goodbye to Rich Stadium and Orchard Park.
04:47And we go to the big toaster.
04:48It's going to block out wind, all fine and good.
04:50And be a more wine and cheese crowd that we used to get that college atmosphere on game day for the Buffalo Bills.
04:56They're going to move forward without a head coach.
04:58Sean McDermott was fired here.
05:00The general manager was promoted to the front office.
05:02And away we go, Joe.
05:04Let's start right here.
05:05The shocking news that came down yesterday when McDermott was out, that actually surprised me.
05:09Even though you thought there would be a possibility because it is all about winning.
05:13But be careful what you wish for here at Buffalo Bills.
05:15McDermott was a really good coach for Buffalo.
05:18And he was very well liked and respected in that locker room.
05:22And, you know, there were a lot of guys that took to social media yesterday.
05:26And, you know, you could tell this wasn't – and he's been on the hot seat forever, Donnie.
05:32We know this, right?
05:33But, you know, that was unfortunately – the problem with this team isn't exactly McDermott.
05:40It's roster construction.
05:42And that's the problem with this team.
05:44But you didn't address it by firing the GM and Brandon Bean.
05:48Instead, you're firing a guy that just won you a playoff game and was, you know, basically a bad call away from heading to an AFC championship game again.
05:57He'll be unemployed for all of 30 seconds.
05:59Again, with all of these jobs opening, at the very least, he can be a coordinator somewhere, I'm sure.
06:04But the reality here is that, okay, the devil you know is still better than the devil you don't.
06:10Exactly who are you bringing in here to take over Josh Allen and the Bills' woes?
06:16I don't know.
06:18Yeah, it's amazing when you look at how good a coach he was at this point and where you move on from this.
06:22Because you take a look at the teams that they lost to, like the Chiefs dynasty here, 2023 lost by three to the Chiefs, 2024 lost by three to the Chiefs, 2025 lost by three to the Denver Broncos.
06:32Sooner than later with Josh Allen, you're hoping to get over the hump.
06:35But I don't look at the Buffalo Bills and say, it's Sean McDermott's fault they can't get over the hump.
06:40Like, there are extenuating circumstances because, quite frankly, you could say, like, well, yeah, Mike Tomlin won a Super Bowl.
06:44That was, like, 15 years ago.
06:45Hey, John Harbaugh, that was, like, 15 years ago.
06:48And those guys got released.
06:49It is a win-now league, and I understand it.
06:51But as Joe continually points out, and he's right, there's not one to two coaching vacancies where you're going to get your pick of the litter, where you can say, you know what, I'm going to make a sound decision.
06:59Now's the time to jump.
07:00There's 10 coaches' jobs that are open here.
07:02The Buffalo Bills is a great coaching job, but, you know, you fire them late.
07:06Maybe you could have Harbaugh on town.
07:07Maybe you could have pried Tomlin loose at this point.
07:09I don't know.
07:10But where do the Buffalo Bills go, Joe?
07:12I doubt it's going to be, let's hire Joe Bray, our offensive coordinator, make him head coach, and that makes all the difference?
07:18I'm with you here, Di.
07:19I mean, he's 98 wins with this, 98 and 50 over nine years with Buffalo here, second only to Marv Levy for the organization there.
07:29And Marv was there for 12 years.
07:31So, again, unless you had your eye on somebody inside the organization, I don't get it.
07:38I really don't.
07:39Unless Bean has an in with Tomlin or somebody else, some big name, I don't, you know, Buffalo is a very unique place to be a coach here.
07:50It's a very blue-collar town organization.
07:54The fans, Bills Mafia, you know, a no-name is not going to cut it in Buffalo.
07:58By the way, also, a couple years ago, Christian McCaffrey was up at the trade deadline here, and the Bills are one of the finalists, along with the San Francisco 49ers.
08:07They didn't want to pay for McCaffrey.
08:08I'm not saying that would have resulted in a championship, but McCaffrey's been absolutely sensational.
08:13And, yes, I know they have Cook at running back, and he's certainly a great running back as well.
08:17But also, did you know, Joe, at the trade deadline this year, Waddle was up in the air.
08:20Mind, he goes, you can have him for a first-round pick.
08:22I'm going to tell you right now, if they had Waddle, they'd still be playing football right now.
08:27But their general manager, Brandon Bean, also went in front of the press just a few days ago.
08:30It's like, everybody's playing Madden football at the deadline.
08:33You know what?
08:33If you played Madden football, you'd still be playing football right now.
08:36Get your superstar quarterback, weapons at wide receiver.
08:39He didn't do that.
08:40Now, the New York Giants, we want weapons at wide receiver for young Jackson Dart.
08:44And maybe it's Malik Nabors, who's coming off a devastating knee injury.
08:47But they got their coach, Harbaugh, to the New York Giants here.
08:51And by the way, Ian O'Connor put out a tweet that says, John Harbaugh, he goes right to
08:56John Mara, overstepping Joe Shane, which you knew was going to be the case.
09:00One thing I do know is Harbaugh wasn't going to accept the job with any team where he had
09:04to answer to a general manager that wasn't his right-hand man.
09:08Yeah, exactly.
09:10And that was kind of the details that they were working on, why we were waiting for everything
09:15to be finalized.
09:16And we kept hearing, they're still working out some of the, you know, structure in the
09:21organization.
09:21Yeah, the structure in the organization is, I don't answer to Joe Shane, you'd be lucky
09:25if he still has a job here in another year.
09:27So it's, obviously, the hierarchy is set.
09:31It's going to be Harbaugh and the owner.
09:34And that's it.
09:35By the way, you did notice, as well as I do, like, hey, Harbaugh's going to be the
09:39head coach.
09:40Why are we waiting 24 to 48 hours before that ink is dry?
09:43That's because the agent for Harbaugh and Harbaugh himself were making sure that he was
09:47going to have control.
09:48Inside the final 48 hours, Chris Mara, critical second meeting on Friday with John Harbaugh.
09:54Harbaugh's agent then started talking to the Titans, increasing that leverage.
09:57And then John Mara had to close the deal with basically saying, you answer to me, here's
10:01a blank check, fill it in, let's go.
10:04Yep, that's exactly correct.
10:06Which is, kudos to Mara, to, you know, having the opportunity, timing is everything, right?
10:13Because you were just going to go likely from one retread and failed coach to another, which
10:19would have absolutely been devastating for this franchise and their fans.
10:23But you had an opportunity to get something that doesn't walk out of an organization every
10:28year, and you jumped on it, and you did what it took to get it done.
10:32So Giants are back on track here.
10:36It should be a lot of fun watching them next season.
10:39You are graded in professional football, Joe, as a coach and also a general manager on who
10:43you hire as the coach, how that works out, what your overall record is.
10:46Joe Shane, as a general manager for the Giants, 22 and 45, one playoff win, no division titles.
10:53But here's the best part, Joe.
10:54Sometimes you have a couple winning seasons, have a down season, ownership goes, okay, it's
10:57okay, that's a mulligan, get back to it next year.
11:00Three straight 11-plus lost seasons.
11:02How did a general manager survive that?
11:04I have no idea.
11:06Well, a general manager only survives that because the general manager likely doesn't
11:11really have any clout one way or the other.
11:14So at this point here, it's okay.
11:18We've got a coach now that is going to have the final say on everything.
11:22So basically, if you want your job, you're going to sit here and you're going to do and
11:26be the right hand man for Harbaugh, period, whatever he wants.
11:30Exactly.
11:31And that looks like what it's going to be where he's the GM just in name at this point.
11:34We'll see how long it goes.
11:35And maybe he can attach himself to Harbaugh and still have a job throughout his career.
11:38But they've all got shown the door and now you see Joe Shane staying on.
11:41It's up to Harbaugh to turn that franchise around.
11:43And maybe he can.
11:44Jackson Dart is a quarterback here.
11:46You got talent at running back.
11:48You got some cap space that you can spend.
11:50A talented defensive line.
11:51Hopefully, your young wide receiver Malik Neighbors comes back and is healthy.
11:54She got some building blocks in New York.
11:56Maybe it changes next season here.
11:59Get to those predictive markets next right here on The Early On.
12:02Predictive markets, they're a lot of fun.
12:04And also, they can be very profitable as well.
12:06A new way to look at investing your money in the sports landscape as opposed to just taking
12:10maybe a point spread.
12:11We got great topics that we could talk about, Joe.
12:14And one of those topics that is red hot, it's a shame.
12:16Usually, they give us pretty good information on our show in the morning.
12:197 to 9 a.m.
12:20News breaks.
12:21They waited until just when we got off the air to fire Sean McDermott for the Buffalo
12:26Bills.
12:26We would have broke in.
12:27We would have had that great coverage for you there.
12:29But today, we're talking about it.
12:30Why?
12:30Because he is out.
12:32And now, the Buffalo Bills have to find a new head coach.
12:35Take a look at the leaders right now.
12:37A 33% chance.
12:38Brian Dable takes that job.
12:40He said, well, why?
12:41Wait a second here.
12:41He was the head coach of the New York Giants.
12:43But did you know?
12:43He came from the Buffalo Bills and basically resurrected Josh Allen on that MVP trajectory
12:49while he was with the Buffalo Bills.
12:51Clay Kubiak, Joe Brady, Davis Webb.
12:52All offensive guys, which I agree with.
12:56Now, do we think that Dable's going to get this job?
12:58Because it is a great job to take.
13:00And if you're looking for offense, maybe it should be Dable here.
13:04You know, there were so many stories that came out after he left Buffalo where, A, number
13:11one, him and McDermott weren't seeing eye to eye.
13:15There was even some questions about Dable and Josh Allen's relationship as well.
13:21And what we learned when he took over for the Giants is that he couldn't get along with
13:26his, you know, the defensive coordinator.
13:28Remember Martindale, couldn't wait to get rid of him there.
13:30Apparently, he's a tough dude to work for.
13:34So I think whoever it's going to be, Josh Allen's got to sign off on it because Josh
13:40Allen's only had one head coach his entire career.
13:43And all he has known is Sean McDermott.
13:45And they were really, really close.
13:46So, you know, whoever it's going to be, he's going to have to sign off on it in a big,
13:52big way here.
13:52And we'll find out if Dable makes sense, given the history.
13:56But I don't know that the relationship is there, Donnie.
13:59Like, I never honestly looked, and maybe you can say, and keep in mind, too, like,
14:03Sean McDermott's not the defensive coordinator at this point.
14:05Like, other guys are calling those plays.
14:06He's more of a CEO coach with a defensive background and has worked out well for Buffalo.
14:10I haven't watched, I mean, outside of the 13-second game or whatever it was for the Kansas City
14:14Chiefs where they lost that game late.
14:16I don't look at the structure of the Buffalo Bills.
14:18Like, you know what the problem is, the head coach.
14:20The problem sometimes is, usually, Joe, when you're in the midst of a run, which the Buffalo
14:25Bills are, you push your chips in and say, I got a two-, three-, four-year window that
14:30I need to win him.
14:31And the one thing we saw was, you go out and get a wide receiver in Stephon Diggs, and it
14:34worked out, and he was really good.
14:36You get rid of him and go like, well, he's a little bit more of a cancer and wasn't really
14:40worth it.
14:40We're going to draft Keon Coleman.
14:41That was your answer, which didn't work out.
14:43And the guy can barely play in the NFL if he's even active.
14:46I look at it and say, Joe, if you brought me a wide receiver, if you brought me another
14:50game-breaker on offense, we probably could get to a Super Bowl.
14:53So now you're looking all offensively.
14:55Is it better to hire Dable, Kubiak, or Brady, who's already on staff calling the plays?
14:59That's supposed to make it better?
15:00Because you look at the record for McDermott.
15:03It was sensational, Joe, outside of getting them to a Super Bowl.
15:08Absolutely correct here.
15:09I mean, and the problem with the Bills now, like Josh Allen isn't this young quarterback
15:16like he was when Dable was first there, right?
15:20Trying to mold.
15:21You're not going to give Josh Allen, you know what I mean?
15:24It's Josh Allen needs weapons.
15:26But more importantly, Donnie, Josh Allen can handle the offense on, you know, with himself.
15:32You give him enough weapons.
15:33Yeah.
15:33You got to get somebody that can get to the quarterback.
15:36You need a game-changer on defense, and they don't have that.
15:41And that's with the front office.
15:42That has nothing to do with the head coach.
15:45And by the way, their defense was ravaged with injuries all the way through.
15:49Like, what Ed Oliver missed?
15:50Like, seven, eight games came back, and then got hurt immediately again in that Broncos game.
15:54It just was never right here.
15:55Championship weekend, Joe.
15:57We just saw a champion last night get crowned in the Indiana Hoosiers in a great playoff run.
16:01It was.
16:02Now, some changes might be coming to the college football playoff.
16:04And next year, we already told you, it's already a week later.
16:07But Ed is a gauntlet to run through the same as it is in the NFL.
16:11But are we catching some breaks here if you're the New England Patriots?
16:13I mean, how charmed to life can they live, Joe?
16:15They go through those Tom Brady years, quickly rebuild.
16:17Now they have Drake May in his, you know, second year, and they're making a run through the Super Bowl
16:21and getting a break, pun intended, from Bo Nix breaking his ankle.
16:25Five and a half is the number of a favorite for the New England Patriots, and a total, Joe, at 41 and a half.
16:31Let me start here.
16:32It's supposed to be the Patriots should be moving on easily because of the backup quarterback for the Broncos.
16:36But the Broncos have a good defense.
16:39The Broncos are at home.
16:40Stidham is a young quarterback that has a nice arm and can be mobile in the pocket,
16:43just doesn't have a lot of opportunities.
16:45I don't know if Denver can win the Super Bowl, but why am I starting to think,
16:49I got to build a path for the Denver Broncos to at least cover this game?
16:53Am I crazy?
16:53No, you're not, Donnie.
16:56And we said it, that there is, what's going to happen here is that the public is going to see Jared Stidham
17:04as the starting quarterback, and they are just going to run to back New England,
17:09who has now become that trendy team, right?
17:13That the public is just going to overvalue, and we kind of see it here, right?
17:18We're at five and a half, and I don't think it's going to get any higher than that,
17:23and I think it's not because you're starting to see some pushback and buyback on the Broncos.
17:29And I'll forget, the Broncos were a one-and-a-half-point favorite,
17:33even a two-point favorite on the look-ahead line before we knew Knicks got hurt.
17:38So now you're talking about a seven-point swing here with Stidham starting instead.
17:45And to me, that's just an insane move for a team that has completely overperformed all year
17:50and is a bit fraudulent, if we're going to be honest here.
17:54I mean, who are we kidding?
17:56I think it's – I'm fairly certain that, you know, it's not going to be a C.J. Stroud game
18:02where Jared Stidham is going to, you know, turn the ball over five times for you.
18:07I – yeah, I think there is – the only play in this would be the dog or pass
18:13because I think New England has a pretty good shot of actually not winning this game in Denver.
18:20Here's what also is factoring in, too, Joe.
18:22You watched the game last week when Bo Nix was the starter.
18:24They lost two wide receivers.
18:25Talk about the Denver Broncos during that game.
18:26I think maybe a concussion to one and a hamstring to the other one.
18:29We'll see what lines up this weekend.
18:31And Cortland Sutton certainly has to be much more involved than he was last week if they want to win.
18:35But also, coaches don't change their stripes.
18:37Like, you look at the Kansas City Chiefs, and let's just say they move on
18:40and they were playing a game without Mahomes this weekend.
18:43You think Andy Reid would say let's slow the game down and run the football?
18:45That's not what they do.
18:46Sean Payton had Bo Nix last year as a rookie and this year in his second year
18:49throwing the football all over the field.
18:51Why?
18:52Because that's his offense.
18:53I don't think Jared Stidham, because the common thought process,
18:56and I'm not saying people are wrong out here.
18:58Oh, look at Denver, as we say.
19:00Get J.K. Dobbins back.
19:01Hopefully that works out.
19:02You know, you have a couple other running backs that you can splice in.
19:04Harvey's been certainly good over the past five or six weeks.
19:06And let's run the football.
19:07That's not what they do.
19:08So Stidham has a passing prop, Joe, of 187 and a half.
19:13What do you do with that?
19:13Well, listen, as long as he does it, as long as he protects the football and give credit
19:21to Sean Payton here, because this is where coaching comes into play, right?
19:25I mean, Sean Payton did a really good job of limiting the turnovers for Bo Nix, not asking
19:31him to do a whole lot.
19:32He's not going to ask Jared Stidham to be, you know, chucking the ball down the field for
19:3640 times here, but they are certainly going to have it set up where in addition to running
19:43and playing great defense, it's going to be a lot of screens.
19:46There's going to be a lot of things there that a couple of big plays one way or the
19:51other.
19:51And guess what?
19:52Getting to 200 yards is not going to be an issue.
19:55Take a look at the total, Joe, which 40 and a half was that opening number.
19:58It's the 41 and a half.
20:00Now we talked about the weather conditions.
20:01It's normal Denver, like high 30s at this point, no precipitation in the forecast and light
20:05winds here.
20:06But as I take a look at the scoring for the Denver Broncos on the season with Bo Nix,
20:10your starter, it was only 23.6 points.
20:12That's a decent number, but you probably figure that's going to get a slight downgrade in this
20:16game.
20:17And the higher the stakes here, you want to protect your quarterback that hasn't thrown
20:20a ton of touchdown passes, which only has eight.
20:22And by the way, those has eight interceptions in his career.
20:24As you're talking about Stidham, how do you play the total in this game?
20:27Joe, most people need to believe backup quarterback, Denver, good defense, lean on your defense.
20:31Let's go under.
20:32Is that the case for you in this game?
20:33No, I would look towards the over, Donnie, in this spot here.
20:38I mean, listen, we know the Patriots offense is, well, A, they're bottom five in red zone
20:44offense.
20:45They're also bottom five in red zone defense.
20:47The Broncos, they're top five in both red zone offense and red zone defense.
20:52So that means they are very, very reliant upon the big play, right?
20:59The explosive play.
21:00That's how the Patriots score.
21:01They have some weapons to get it done.
21:03But Denver, listen, they've been pretty good in limiting those explosive plays, but doesn't
21:09mean they're not going to have a couple here and put some points on the board.
21:13It's a low number.
21:14I get 24 to 20, Donnie is, is very realistic to me for this game.
21:20How about game number two, which is the NFC championship game that will take place in
21:24Seattle, 630 PM.
21:25Eastern Joe, just getting an early week weather report in this one, 45 degrees, no rain in
21:31the forecast, three mile an hour winds.
21:33Absolutely love to see that.
21:34Now understand this.
21:35The Rams went on the road, put out a victory against the Carolina Panthers.
21:38The Rams went on the road, put out a victory against the Chicago bears.
21:41The Rams going back on the road to Seattle in the NFC championship game.
21:46This line opened up around one and a half, two and a half, depending where you're shopping
21:48at.
21:49We still see two and a half across the board.
21:51I want to start here with you, Joe.
21:53Where does this line up once we get the kickoff Sunday at 630?
21:57Yeah.
21:58And I think that's about what you're going to see here, Donnie.
22:01But again, I would not be shocked if maybe you start getting some Ram money coming in,
22:05maybe push this thing down to two.
22:07I don't think you're going to get an influx of Seattle money pushing it back to a field
22:13goal or even over a field goal.
22:15We know three is a very key number here.
22:17But if you go back to when these two teams played, right, week 16, it was a Thursday night
22:23game.
22:23You had Seattle as a one and a half, two and a half point favorite.
22:27And they won 38-37, needed a complete collapse and a ridiculous two point conversion in overtime
22:34to win that game.
22:36But when you look at the Rams in week 11, they won 21 to 19.
22:41The Rams were a three and a half point favorite in that game.
22:44And the total was 48 to 49 and a half here.
22:48So my question is, do we trust the public enough that they are enamored with Sam Darnold
22:53to think that he's going to out, you know, shoot out and he's going to beat Matt Stafford
22:59and company here?
23:00I don't think so.
23:01I don't think you're going to get a whole lot of Sam Darnold love here in the market
23:05all week.
23:06I think two and a half is what you see is what you're going to get all week in this
23:09one.
23:10Kenneth Walker was really good last week.
23:12He's going to be really good again because Zach Jarvis tore his ACL.
23:15And that's a great one-two punch in the NFL that now you don't have.
23:17And you might say like, okay, Walker can handle it.
23:19But you're used to getting these guys breathers and taking off a play or two and coming back
23:23fresh.
23:23That's not going to be the case in this game.
23:25Everything's going to be on Walker.
23:26But understand this too.
23:28You see that total, Joe, at 47 and a half.
23:30We combine both of those games this year that these two teams have already played.
23:33Take a look at the points scored.
23:3558 for the Rams, 57 for the Seahawks.
23:37And look at the yardage.
23:39If you just average it out, over 400 yards per game per team here.
23:43So the thought process of, hey, NFC Championship game, two good defenses.
23:46They've shown you these two teams can get up and down the field.
23:49And basically, it is going to be dome-like conditions up there in Seattle.
23:53Little Chile, yeah.
23:54No wind, no rain.
23:55Should be fine.
23:56Yeah, which I thought that was that week 16 game, Donnie.
24:00That total was 42 and a half, which is hilarious when you think about it.
24:03Yeah.
24:04Especially given the fact that the week 11 game was almost 50 points was the total in that
24:09game.
24:09And yet you can see how razor thin the margins are for both these teams.
24:13They play one score games.
24:14They are very comparable to one another.
24:17So what separates them, Donnie?
24:19Well, what's going to have to separate them is who do you trust?
24:23With the ball last, Sam Donald and Seattle or Matt Stafford and the Rams?
24:28And I think that will help you decide who wins this game.
24:32It's always going to come down to that because here's the thing about Darnold.
24:35Like, oh, how is he going to play last week against the 49ers?
24:37Didn't have to play well because he's ransacked that injured team.
24:40Now, if he beats the Los Angeles Rams, he gets to the Super Bowl and then wins the Super
24:44Bowl against whatever the AFC opponent's going to be, New England or Denver.
24:47Do you know what we're going to do next year in big games, Joe?
24:49So say, yeah, I don't know if I can trust Sam Donald in this spot.
24:52He just has that moniker right now.
24:53Now, maybe you change it up, Joe.
24:55NFC Championship game, 25 of 35, 333 touchdowns, leads them on a game-winning drive.
25:01You say, you know what?
25:01Darnold's finally come up to the primetime here.
25:03But last week, he's not going to get any credit.
25:05I need to see Sam Darnold take a game from Matthew Stafford because the one thing I do
25:09know, Joe, me and you look at this game and go, I expect good things from Stafford.
25:13Let's take you about Sam Darnold.
25:15The way it is, man.
25:16We'll be right back after this little break for more right here on The Early Line.
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