It's the fifth quarter today of Football 301. Charles McDonald joins me to recap week 16, Saturday and Sunday games on this pod. We got Eagles, Commanders, Commanders storming back in that game. We have some Ravens, Steelers, Chit Chat. We have Seahawks and Vikings and the Vikings taking that one late and a very fun one. Bunch more stuff on the fifth quarter. Very fun show. See you guys in a sec.

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Welcome back to Football 301. It's the fifth quarter where we recap the best of the NFL Sunday slate and this week the Saturday slate. We're going to be recapping week 16. It's me, Nate Tice, and to help me do that today on the fifth quarter to recap those games, Mr. Forverts, Charles McDonald. How are you doing today, Chuck?

I'm doing all right. You know, it's three days before Christmas, two and a half, really. So I'm literally just trying to get to the end of, like, Monday, maybe, so I can just sleep and eat some food.

If I get a present, that's fine. But really, I just need to get to the day so I can just lay down. Just lay down for a bit. I got my last gifts finally coming in tomorrow. And then I can wrap them. And then I'm like, all right, good. No more gifts. And then we can just jump right into it. Like, oh, jump right into the holidays. Just like jump right into this show. We're going to get into game one of the fifth quarter. We like to do five games or five things that we learn. Biggest takeaways or just things that we found most entertaining. Sometimes.

It's hit and miss, but I think we had some good ones this week. Game one. This one got a lot of eyeballs. This was the Eagles and the commanders on their rematch in the NFC East. The commanders took this one. 36 to 33 came storming back.

I thought the Eagles had this one. And then Jalen Hurts gets a concussion in the first quarter. Kenny Pickett, Kenny Pickles comes on in for the third quarter. Got a little sloppy. I'll dive into some stats in a second. But Jane Daniels finishes with five touchdowns. The commander's defense really stepped up as the game went along.

Yeah. Wow. This was this was for about three quarters. I thought I kind of saw how this game was going to go. And then all of a sudden, just some stuff happened. But your takeaway from this game, Charles, commanders win another wild one in the fourth quarter.

Yeah, you called Kenny Pickles, but I think in the fourth quarter, they would have rather had Tommy Pickles as their quarterback, you know, take it back to the Rugrats days. That was crazy what happened in this game. And like you said, for the first three quarters, even with the Jalen Hurts injury, which happened pretty early, the Eagles were still in command of this game. Like, even with the score, I'd still feel pretty confident saying they're a much better team than the Commanders because you get to the third quarter through three quarters, they were up 27-14. Yeah.

Going into the fourth quarter in a game which they lost 36 33 without overtime Or do you get that was wrong? No didn't get them. No no No, because because they they want to know the final drive of the game So in the fourth quarter the commanders had a rushing success rate of 75% overall success rate of 59% 0.5 EP ever play seven point three three points per drive and only one turnover so

I mean, if you give up all that in a fourth quarter, you deserve to lose for sure. You, I mean, that's just a collapse that,

I don't think that any team would dream that they would really have in that scenario. But I guess, you know, you've got to hat tip Jaden Daniels. He had an interception on like their third drive of the game. Then they came back and they were able to score a touchdown or to score on the final drive to actually get them the victory. They got a little lucky because Devontae Smith was walking around with grease on his hands for –

The Eagles finally played the game and just dropped a wide-open pass that we've seen make a million times that would have probably iced the game because they were at two-minute warning, watching that one timeout. So if you can just get one more first down after that, that game's over. So they were kind of blessed, but shoot, this is the team of destiny, right? That's what we've been saying all season. They were able to get back into that game, run on the field score, touchdown, and now their playoff hopes are just about solidified with everything else that's happened in the NFC. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, it was a tale of the first quarter and then the rest of the game. The commanders can do anything, right? I mean, they had five turnovers at the end of the game and still won that game. That's that rarely happens. And some brutal ones to the two picks like Jane Daniels had the one early and then the one late. And then the last one felt like that was going to be the ball game. But again, he bounced back and comes back. I thought he was great with his legs today.

especially on third and fourth down. He had a five-yard scramble on fourth and four. That was huge. This was in the second quarter. They were down 21-7. He hits a big go ball to I.M. Brown. He scrambles on fourth and four, and then he hits the touchdown to Terry McLaurin against the Blitz. And that touchdown against the Blitz to Terry McLaurin was like his best play and throw of the game because it was a free runner thrown to his left, which isn't usually a strong suit either. Boom, gets it. Great scramble on fourth and 11.

on the game-winning drive. Or no, he had a different game-winning drive scramble, and then he had another scramble for 28 yards on fourth and 11. I mean, he was just really good with his legs. But Jim and Hertz had some woes as a passer, but he's better in Kenny Pickett. Hell yeah. And you feel how the repercussions of not having a threatening passing game can just ruin and kneecap the entire offense.

The Eagles had six successful runs in the first quarter. They had four the rest of the game. They went four for 24, 16.7% the rest of the game, or really the last three quarters. They had five explosive runs in the first quarter. They had four successful runs the rest of the game. Only explosive play in the last three quarters was that picket prayer to A.J. Brown that he came down with.

That was with 13 minutes left in the second quarter. They didn't have an explosive play the rest of the game, and they only ran the ball 16%. They couldn't do anything. The commander's defense just squeezed on them because they weren't really scared of Kenny Pickett. And a lot of their success, the Eagles, and they still almost won it, was just getting a lot of PIs. I think they got two back-to-back, and then the next drive got another one, just spamming throws to A.J. Brown.

So, I mean, that's what just happened on that side of the ball. I mean, everything just got squeezed, but it just felt like Zach Ballin had a rough game. You know, C.J. Gardner-Johnson gets ejected. You know, even with five turnovers, some things went their way, but the commanders just kept at it and they ended up pulling away. No more Grant Calcaterra blocking, by the way, for the Eagles.

I mean, he had two catastrophic plays trying to block. And then also on the flip side, Jalen Carter had some huge moments, but then that kind of just kind of went for waste when the other team was putting up 36 points. Anything else from this game? I mean, shoot, Brian Robinson fumbles. We had Jameson Crowder.

Jameson Crowder. What? Jameson Crowder's back catching huge touchdowns. Anything else from this game that stood out to you other than Pickett just...

wasting away the rest of the game. Well, the last thing I have, which is picker related, sticking with the fourth quarter, he had 12 dropbacks for 27 yards in the fourth quarter. Oh. I know that there was the Bonta Smith drop, which would have added maybe 10 yards to that, but you're just not going to win a whole lot. 2.9 yards for dropback in the fourth quarter while Jaden Dan was on the other side, 8.3 yards.

Jars per drop back in the fourth quarter. You know, it's just different games. Yeah, different games. Yeah. Third downs were totally different. Where commanders, even when they don't get all the way to the first down, they're making it fourth and shorts. It was like any third and long for the Eagles. It was like, all right, well,

Here goes Pickett running out of the pocket. I remember this in Pittsburgh. I know this exact operation. We'll get to another former quarterback running out of the pocket, making mistakes for your favorite team's game. The other side of the ball, I guess. But we're going to move on to another. This was the afternoon kind of brouhaha.

feels like these two teams play entertaining games. I think even the commentators talked about that, but the Vikings beat the Seahawks 27-24. Very entertaining game. They are now 13-2. Battling for that one seed, battling

Battling for the NFC North. I mean, the Lions took home against the Bears, but they're still battling for it, those Vikings. Back and forth game. Sam Darnold finishes with 246 yards, three touchdowns. Justin Jefferson goes 10 for 144, two touchdowns. Jordan Addison does his best Robin impression, five for 35 for one touchdown. Geno Smith.

was a freaking rocket launcher back there he just stood there and just launched them i guess yeah i'm gonna talk about it uh 315 yards three touchdowns two picks jsn had a nice game 95 yards for a pick uh dk mecca 57 yards and a pick or i'm sorry a touchdown uh jason had a touchdown i'm sorry dk meccaf had a touchdown and a very loose sloppy route that forced a pick

at the end of the game. Charles watching the Vikings, Seahawks, Nate Burleson, Steve Hutchinson, Mike Tice, Paul, what were some of your takeaways?

Oh, man. Also the Adrian Peterson Bowl. Adrian Peterson? Yeah. Did have a hot cup of coffee in Seattle. John Randall and Warren Sapp. Also other Viking Seahawk guys. I'm trying to think some others. Some others will come up as you're talking. I think the thing that I left this game with, I was actually, it sucks because

At what point in the season that they lost? Eight and seven at this point with the Rams winning today. That's a killer. But Seattle's offense, I thought, should be

pretty pleased with how they performed considering what we thought was going to happen coming to the game because I thought they were just going to get turbo nukes and wouldn't be able to do anything against the Vikings defense. But they even had a decent day success rate rushing the ball. They had a much higher success rate overall than the Vikings did for this game. In a game where I thought that, oh my God, you see some of the pass protection woes, just overall offensive line lows the Seahawks have had. There just can't be another

defensive coordinator that is just chomping at the bit to get after these guys, the Brian Flores. But Geno Smith's a tall back there. Deacon Metcalf has some really big plays down the field. And I just came away feeling a little bit better about Stiano's offense and maybe

Where they are moving forward for next year, because that was a tough defensive play. They were put together. Geno Smith, like you said, rocket launches down the field. I mean, his ability to just kind of stay unfazed and stay composed and just keep dropping back and firing and trying to make plays. That was really impressive. So I...

it's a tough one to lose for seattle you just kind of got justin jefferson at the end of the game uh yeah he's he's really good it's gonna happen sometimes but if they can sneak into the playoffs i think that that was a somewhat encouraging performance from their offense moving forward yeah they they have a if they went out uh they got at bears at rams they got 44 chance according to new york times playoff model um i'm with you though they

I mean, it's classic why success rate matters because if you just looked at their base rushing stats, you'd be like, oh, it's not that great. Kenneth Walker went eight for 31 and all that. But yeah, but they're actually getting those efficient gains. And Geno was just chucking it back there. They had nine explosive passes today, zero explosive runs. And Geno was pressured 17 times, but only sacked twice, which is pretty impressive.

That was the ball game right there. The fact that he was able to stay upright to launch it, to be that rocket launcher. Felt like the Vikings ran a lot of cover too. So to me, they were kind of going, well, we can just win with four, maybe some funkiness up front as opposed to blitzing. And we're going to just make Geno stay back there and chuck it and

He chucked it. You know, he put it up and he was willing to do it. You know, they didn't do any play action. I had a non-play action stat here from NextGenStats. Gino went three for five for seven yards on play action and a pick.

no play action 28 of 38 for 307 yards so they're just that's how you have to beat this vikings defense this is what we talked about on thursday was you have to have a quarterback wound that can operate without play action that can just scan the whole field and chuck it and we're like he we the seahawks have that it's just can they keep them upright and today off of gino's own operation and the pass protection they were able to do it so it's actually pretty cool but uh i mean this is

This is the thing about this Vikings offense, though. It's like just when you think, okay, all right, they're making it tough on them. We're getting some pressure there. I felt like the Seahawks were getting home a little bit, even without blitzes and everything. It's just...

they can just gas you at a moment's notice or there's just i mean donald's stepping up that was second touchdown he had the jefferson was beautiful as he's getting smoked on it and jefferson just makes a nice catch on it as well the first touchdown was really nice um addison was getting going early and then they just moved the ball kind of the jefferson but uh that vikings offense kind of just makes it really really tough on no matter kind of who they who they go against

And even today, Seattle, they did a really good job stopping the run against the Vikings. On the first and second down, the Vikings were held to 24 carries for 81 yards. The success rate of 31% on those plays. Really good. So, I mean, dude...

I know it's frustrating when this happens to you, but as a defense, if you can say, man, we got them in the third and long pretty consistently, beat up their run game, you just got caught by who I think is the best receiver in football at the end of the game. So I think that's really cool for the Vikings. The Vikings...

have a chance at the number one seed if they went out for the rest of the playoffs. So that's a big win for them. It did give me a little juice for the NFC playoff race because I think that

We've had so many bad teams this year. Even the ninth pick right now, the draft for today is held by a 4-10 team. And there's a squash of 3-11 teams in the middle before you get to 2-13 Giants at the top. So the playoff race hasn't been that exciting, but this game did get me a little juice for it because you got to see some of the best players at the position play well. And then just to ice it at the end, Justin Jefferson going ballistic. That's what we're here for. I think just because the Eagles lost, the Vikings went out.

They host the Packers and they go at the Lions. They got the number one seed. So, you know, they – and I don't know, they – no matter – this Vikings team, and even when I wrote about it last week, it was like even when it's not perfect for them, they find a new way to kind of just go, oh, yeah, they're good at this. Like, oh, okay, they can go to Addison if they take away Justin Jefferson or go to Hawkinson now. Oh, they can run the ball if you take away – if you're just going to really like –

you know, take away play soft boxes and cover two and all that. Oh, they can answer the blitz, even though you can get some pressure. And then it's like on defense, it's that make Gino Smith beat you over and over and then take away the run game, you know? Okay. But okay. They can make it a slog, but they always just find like a new answer. And that's why I kind of like, even in my articles, like,

You know, some of the pass protection stuff is a little worrisome because I've seen that just cripple so many teams trying to make a playoff run, but they've shown ways to mitigate it. Darnold can mitigate it a little bit. They're so aggressive on offense. I don't know. Just for lack of a better phrase, they find a way to win, but they just keep kind of beating these good teams and keep stacking them up. So I deservedly fighting for that number one seed, I think. All right. We are going to take our first break and then come back with a couple more games for the fifth quarter.

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Alright, we are back. And we're going to some rookie quarterback discourse. And Atlanta Falcons discourse. That's the Falcons beat the Giants 34-7. Drew Locke made it nice. He really wanted to welcome Michael Penix in his first start. Had a couple picks, a little pick six, two pick sixes. Michael Penix finished 18-27 for 202 yards. He had a pick, but that was kind of a fluke off of Kyle Pitts kind of

botched catch uh bijan robinson had some real nice tough running today 22 carries 94 yards he had two touchdowns as well thank you for my fantasy teams uh but yeah giants now have the number one seed for next year's draft number one seed they are drafting number one if the season were at to end were to end today which is like my one preseason prediction i might get correct um

Watching Michael Penix, though, Charles, watching your Falcons today, what were your thoughts? What were your quick takeaways as you enter the rookie quarterback discourse for the next couple of weeks? The first play...

of the game, I almost keeled over laughing because the first thing they did with no Kirk Cousins in the game is run a damn bootleg. You know? Literally, the first play, they had been waiting for this. Like, all year. Zach Robbins was like, oh my god, my quarterback, he might be Michael Vick, but he don't have his cement, his feet glued to the floor in cement like we were doing for the past few weeks. And you could just tell, I mean, the Giants suck. Like, that...

No team should be losing 34-7 to this Falcons squad. So, I mean, I think you do have to weigh that a little bit. But this was some nice throws that Penix made. Like on the first rollout, threw a dime to Ray McLeod, who was draping coverage. It hit him right in the chest and he dropped it. And then they had another drop on that drive. But just like some of the decisiveness that you saw from him throwing over the middle, which we didn't always see him do at Washington. I thought he had some nice throws to Drake London. Yeah.

the Falcons had zero sacks in this game. And I think he played a part in that too. And his ability to, you know, unlike Kirk, like you just not stand there when things are going wrong. Like you don't have to be the flyest of foot, but if you can just move around a little bit, you can buy yourself some time to, you know, maybe make something happen and avoid some of those negative plays. So the biggest thing that I thought from him in his first game was, you know, you walk out of the game with zero sacks and the one interception bounce off someone's hands that,

It was kind of an interesting play because Kyle Pitts probably should have caught it, but even if they caught it, they had no timeouts and there were like six seconds left. So there was also another... The other scenario here was like the clock just runs out and that looks really embarrassing, but instead you just get to...

You get to laugh at someone else, which always feels kind of good. So, you know, they escaped out of that situation. Then you get to the end of the game. You just keep the ball safe, make some explosive plays, don't look stupid. That's fine, because Drew Locke did plenty of that for the Giants. I mean, Drew Locke might as well have been wearing red and black. Like, have you ever seen a Madden glitch where

sometimes the other player are wearing like your team's jerseys. That's what it felt like watching Drew Locke. Two pick sixes, a fumble, missed like some of the easiest throws you'll see. That was just treacherous football from the Giants. A lot of forays outside the pocket that were aimless forays outside the pocket for Drew Locke today. It was...

Every start with Drew Locke feels the same. You might get a cool scramble early. It's always the opening scramble. First quarter, Drew Locke can do some things. And then it's like the other team just goes, it's Drew Locke. Like, what are we doing? We just corral him. Just take him down. Like, get him to do something stupid here. I was trying to find some stat with Penix throwing on the move.

and seeing if he had more today. He had three today. Cousins only has 20 on the whole season, so he's already chipping away where Cousins is at. And that was with a lot of clean pockets today. Yeah. I know Caleb McGarry is now the blindside protector, but I actually did think the Falcons' protection was pretty good today. I actually was really enjoying watching Pennix, just like watching him at Washington's, because he's going to chuck it.

So it's sometimes the accuracy can, he can lose some accuracy stuff. Like, you know, just especially when he has to move off the launch point. But I thought today, I'm glad you brought up the Ray McLeod throw on that first drive. That was great. Cause he was under pressure. Um, he had another couple of throws as he was getting hit. Uh,

I thought he was hitting the in breakers like over and over and over and over. I mean, I felt like they hit six of them today, seven of them, which is really good because that's where I want to see the consistent accuracy. You know, him scrambling is still a work in progress. Yeah.

Yeah, it's whatever. It's like he's not like he's not going to fool anyone. And like, you're going to be like scared of him running, but he can do it, you know, and I just thought that he had some really good feel in the pocket. Like, I thought that he was really progressing like a timely matter where it wasn't just like he was hanging on something to get open. I thought that was.

It was a soft landing spot going against this Giants defense, but it was as positive as you could hope for for a guy making his first start. So, got that going for you, I mean, as long as the Falcons, they haven't played the toughest schedule of defenses this year and they still got public. So, to even do this against the Giants has got to step up from where they were recently. They get the Commanders, Panthers, close the season, so...

We'll see. The kind of defense will be fun. That will be fun. Sunday night football. And then you get panics, Bryce Young for the crown of who's the best young quarterback in the FC South. I also, the Falcons defense has been doing some nice things. At least a couple of players. I should say Evacati has had some really nice moments stepping up his pass rush. You kind of gave me a shout out.

Yeah, Ellis. Yeah, Blitzing Wonder. Oh, my God. Yeah, I know. Yeah, he's really had some nice moments, too. I got to see some Malik neighbors today in that game as well. And he's twitchy. I'll tell you that much. Still have some stuff, but he can keep his balance with ball in his hands and everything. So I saw him catching one on AJ Trail. That was pretty fun. I'm going back and forth. All right, moving on or moving back.

to Saturday's games because this was a fun one. Well, first day we had the Chiefs in Texas. I'll give some Chiefs thoughts after we wrap this one up. But then we had one that was a little more interesting for a lot of the game before the Ravens pulled away. The Ravens won this 34 to 17. This was our auto Haas fight. It felt very Haas fighty for a while. We also saw some Russell Wilson turned the clock back.

He had some balls over the middle. He had a scramble early in the game that did not go so well at the end of it. But I thought he had some really nice throws. But the Ravens took it second half, really clamped down a little bit. You could just see their offense attacking so many different ways. It was kind of the tight ends day in that game. But saw some Rashad Bateman touchdowns. Zay Flowers got in there. Derrick Henry finishes 24 carries for 162 yards. Yeah.

And Lamar finishes with 270 yards, three touchdowns and a pick. But that was the Ravens taking it home in their rematch. There was no Tomlin magic in this game. You know, it was interesting for a little bit. Some of the AFC Nets slobber slobber knocker going on. Charles, where are some of your takeaways in this Ravens victory?

Uh, man, Lamar Jackson's pretty good at football. Isn't he? Pretty good. I was just happy to see them just get past this hurdle for them, I guess, because I... Right. It's kind of like what we said when we were talking about the game last week, where you did slow down the Ravens' offense the first game, but do it again. I mean, this is one of the best offenses in the league for a reason. I...

Derrick Henry got fed like crazy in this game. He had 24 carries, a few big runs. Lamar Jackson was great. So I think that this was important not only for playoff status because the Steelers, they hold the tiebreaker for now. But if you can just get one more win or two more wins and they drop one by the end of the season, then you're right back playing a home game in a couple of weeks when the playoffs start. So just kind of a...

reestablishing yourself in the pecking order. Like, no, we can't do this. Lamar Jackson can't have a good game against the Steelers. We can go out there and score 34 points against one of our biggest rivals that we struggled against. So I thought that was good for them as the playoffs get closer just to have that police performance. Baltimore's defense is getting better. But even with that, I did think the Steelers had it

a quality game on offense. I did too. It was better. It was certainly better than the game against the Eagles a couple weeks ago because even the success rate-wise, they really run the ball well. Just turnovers. It was way better than I was expecting. Like, it was way more like they actually were having good drives and everything. They were. Yeah, way better than expected.

Turnovers, man. You had the Russ Bumble on the scramble, the pick six of Humphrey late in the game, and that's just kind of where it got away from them. But Ravens good. Steelers, I would say, could be worse. It could have been worse. And hopefully when George Pickens gets back, you figure out just how to sustain a few more drives and actually get the ball into the end zone. Yeah. Other guys were stepping up. You had some Jalen Warren catching it and running the ball. Calvin Austin had to catch on the sideline, which felt like a magic trick.

It was like the ball went up in the air and all of a sudden Calvin Austin's just falling down on the sideline with the ball in his hands. I still was trying to figure it out. Yeah. I made joke about a joke about this kind of going, who's Arthur, Arthur Smith in a call plays for Michael Pruitt and Cordero Patterson. And, and,

Michael Pruitt and Cardero Patterson both finished with receiving touchdowns. The account I was like, oh, that's exactly the auxiliary targets that he's going to dial up plays for. It actually worked out. But yeah, I just felt like that it was much it was a much better performance from that Stewart team with again, against a Ravens defense that had done so well defending the run and knew that the Steelers are probably going to be run first and they

And they were still, they were getting creative. I saw a couple new runs in there, different types of concepts. And that's kind of like why I like Arthur Smith stuff. But yeah, man, Lamar. Yeah, Stewart's actually finished with a higher rushing success rate, which just kind of blows your mind a little bit. Ravens finished with six explosive runs, including a 25-yarder, a 44-yarder. But then Lamar was peppering the tight ends, beat man coverage,

He had 152 yards and two touchdowns against man was beating bullets. I mean, he's, it's so hard to stop this team because it's like, all right, well, we'll run zone. All right. They're going to run it on us or they throw it to the tight ends. All right. We'll run man. All right. Well, they flowers or shot baby and one of the tight ends or they run something else. They run their quarterback run game in there because that beats man coverage to get the guys all kind of convoluted. So,

Man, this Ravens team on offense just finds a way to cook no matter what. Sometimes they lose their way. I say Todd Monken sometimes gets a little, you know, he has some stuff. You could tell he always wants to get to something. Like he always is like, hey, we...

I want to show what this new kind of package of plays. And it's like, they feel like you, they waste a couple of series every game, but usually in the second quarter, it's always like midway through the second, they always kind of lose their way, but they always find a way to pull out these games. And it's a very good offense, improving defense, like you said, but it was a good performance from that Steelers offense. All right. We are going to take our last break, come back with some grab back thoughts and our game balls for week 16.

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All right, we are back. Wrap up the fifth quarter. Going to do just the thoughts on the other Saturday game. This is more Chiefs tweaks.

We saw some Joe Tooney at left tackle, which I thought was interesting. Oh, yeah, he can do that. You know, Chiefs beat the Texans and kind of it was just they felt like they kind of matriculate in this game. You know, this is how the Chiefs kind of win every game. They just win the first down battle. Game goes along. Game goes along. They don't make mistakes. And then also they're winning by two scores.

This is one score, but I felt like two scores. But yeah, Joe tuning at left tackle. I just want to talk about Trent McDuffie in the slot was the other thing I wanted to talk about in this game. McDuffie had only we talked about this, though. That's why I think it's interesting.

Chiefs were getting peppered in the slot the last few weeks. Their defense is kind of having some iffy things, you know, defending the pass. They put McDuffie from outside back in the slot. He'd only been in the slot for 14 snaps since week seven. Last two weeks, basically doubled that, 26 snaps. He has four PBUs and two picks over the last two weeks just from the slot. So good choice. Good choice to put McDuffie back in there. We had some brutally efficient long chief drives in this game. Superb.

some up and down this, some awesome throws, some also some bad picks, but any other thoughts from this game? But I just kind of want to like tie a little bow on the Chiefs pulling out another win and now are 14 and one. Yeah, I mean, there's just it's so tough, you know, I mean, everything's so bad in Kansas City as their 14 to one. One.

One game away, or one win away from getting the number one seed. And the road to the playoffs go to Kansas City. 14-1, it's crazy. I mean, you can have all the concerns you want, but they've only won 14 games this year. And this week, it might have been one of their better performances of the season offensively. Maybe not of the season, but in recent weeks, for sure. They average three points.

per drive, which is exactly what you want. Like that's what you're looking for. Like from an elite offense, if you can score, you know, about three points for drive, that's where you want to be. So that's where they were this week. Yeah. It's elite. Uh, they had a 53%, uh, success rate, uh, through the air on dropbacks. Like,

I don't know. What else do you want? I know. Are you not entertained? I understand why people are concerned about this, but they still have... Look, I know Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, but they still have the best quarterback in football.

They still have Andy Reid. I mean, the offensive line looks all right. You know a team is down bad when they're like, we've run through all three answers. Joe, Thune, can you play left tackle for us? And he looked all right. Honestly, he did. He's done it before.

Right, right. But, you know, it's funny because that's your last option, right? Our all pro left guard playing left tackle. But he did in the pinch because they just had to do something. So at least you can get a good quality player in that spot. Maybe able to hold up a little better. Didn't run the ball too well this week.

you know, in their quest to win this game. But, hey, Mahomes is great. You figured out how to throw against defense. You averaged .3 EPA for drop back throughout the whole game, which is pretty wild. So, hey, man, maybe they're peaking at the right time. And maybe they're still really good because they're 14-1. They have Patrick Mahomes.

Yep. I know. The defense, maybe not as good as last year, but still good. That's the thing. And their offense is better than last year, which won the Super Bowl. And now they got Hollywood Brown back, and he actually felt like he made a difference right away. So, yeah, the Chiefs just keep on winning. I'm kind of liking what I saw on Saturday. All right. Now it's time.

to give out our game balls for week 16. Doctor, is he going to make it? I'm sorry. He's got that dog. All right, Charles, who gets your game ball for week 16? Justin Jefferson. I mean, dude, 10 catches, like you said before, 10 catches, 144 yards, two touchdowns. I've just been so damn impressed with him because he's

Over, let's call it the past, what, 12 months of his life?

There's been no quarterback consistency there for him. Because now, you know, Darnold played all of this year. But last year, he had three guys throwing him the ball. In production, it never wavers. It never wavers. If he's on the field, and he is breathing, has two hands attached to his body, and can run, he's good for whatever. Because they had Jake Browning throwing the ball. They had Kirk Cousins throwing the ball. They got Sam Darnold throwing him the ball. It doesn't matter. And he just keeps showing up. I think he's like...

he's one of the best receivers I've ever seen. He's the best receiver of like this era. If we're doing like post AB, Julio Jones, you know, that class, I think he's the best of this era. And you showed it again today. Like I am, I am pumped that we're going to get to watch them play in playoffs with KOC. Donald's feeling it. Justin Jefferson's playing well. It feels like the passing game for the Vikings has really come together in a way that's hard to stop. And he's the engine of it. So yeah,

I love it. No, it's just, it's so cool to watch that whole offense. Just kind of like it's based off of him. Yeah. Darnold's a trigger man and everything right now, but it's based through Jefferson. You know, we run this run because Justin Jefferson gets us this luck. We throw it to this guy because Justin Jefferson gets us this luck. So I'm with, he's the best receiver to me right now. And probably the one of the best I've ever seen period. And I, I just love it because when you're bringing up, uh,

no matter what the quarterback, who the quarterback is, is because he affects the game no matter what. He's not just a deep ball guy. He's not just a sideline guy. He's not just a yak guy. He does everything. Lines up in the slot outside, catches over the middle, catches outside. It's just so much fun to watch him. So great game ball. I am going to the ground game. Wanted to give one to Chuba Hubbard and the Panthers, but they're getting an honorable mention. I'll give them an honorable mention. I had to give this one, though, to Jonathan Taylor.

from the Colts and the Colts rushing attack overall. Jonathan Taylor finished with 29 carries, 218 yards, three touchdowns, held onto the ball both times when he crossed the plane. Some long ones there. That Colts stats for a while. I honestly didn't realize the Titans came back because that game did not make my multi-view in the second half. But Titans did come back in the second half there. But the Colts won 38 to 30. They actually, I mean,

I mean, they barely even had to throw the ball. Anthony Richardson went 7-11 for 131 yards. How many sacks did he take? Only took one sack there, too. But he was able to get going. They really just have figured out, okay, let's just run him a ton as well. So we got some Anthony Richardson runs in there as well. But Jonathan Taylor getting going, holding on to the ball, bunch of touchdowns, bunch of yards for the Colts as they cling on.

to their playoff hopes. I think it's like a 10% or something at this point in time, but yeah, big one for the home. Where was this a week ago? Like a week ago, man. And I know, I understand why he did, but man watching, like I think on the first touchdown he scored, he held the ball all the way into the tunnel. I'm like, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. He's the Bo Jackson of holding on to the football. Just running into the tunnel with it. Dude, you're getting closer to double-digit years in the NFL, man. Maybe you just want to act like it sometimes. But hey, they got the win. Still alive. Whatever that means. They'll get to see what happens in the next two weeks. They're at 13% right now, according to the New York Times. They have at Giants and host the Jags. So not the... If they went out

They have it at 27%. So one in four chance right there. Well, that'll do it for the fifth quarter. Thank you for joining me, Charles. I'm Nate Tice. You can find me at Nate underscore Tice. Where can they find you, Chuck?

You can find me on Blue Sky, Forverts, Twitter, Forverts. I'm trying to decide where I want to settle down because Blue Sky has got some weird-ass people on there. It really, really does. A little bit. Some people who haven't touched grass in a while, but the alternative is just...

It's blue sky, not green grass. Right, right. So we'll take a Christmas break to reassess that. And I hope everyone rests, talks to their family, you know, does what they like to do, whether that's drink, not drink, you know, eat a bunch of food, just hang out, have a good time, take your mind off football, and just get some sleep. That's what I'm going to do.

Yeah, I'm going to try to do the same. Before I do that, you guys can send your mailbag questions. But send us the football 301 mailbag at YahooSports.com. Emails are great. Video voice notes are even better. But subscribe to us, follow us, rate us, watch us on YouTube at the Yahoo Sports YouTube channel.

We will be back. We're going to take our little mini break for Christmas as well. Charles and I will be back for Thursday to preview week 17 and maybe recap those Netflix Wednesday games if they're juicy enough as they play around Robin. So those teams that we talked about Saturday, they're the ones that are playing on Wednesday because that's how they have to do it. So they can say it's not a true short week.

guys are playing three games in 11 days good luck with that but we will be watching it maybe recapping it we'll be previewing week 17 for the thursday show thank you to brett and stone behind the scenes thank you all for listening enjoy your holidays merry christmas happy hanukkah happy holidays everything thanks for listening back with that pod on thursday see you guys then

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