33. The Game Stats Lab: The NFL's Longest Little Kick, The NFL is Reality TV and The MVP Numbers You Need to Know and

0:22I'm Victoria. I'm Giovanna. The game's on. Whoop, whoop. Welcome back to another episode of your favorite football podcast by the girls. For everyone, you're in the Game Stats Lab. So welcome to Wild Card Weekend. Oh, yeah. Before we were recording, I was telling Victoria and she was like, wait, stop. We need to press record so we can talk about this on the show. But I was basically kind of thinking about this, like watching the media. I'm like very much watching the first take at Morning Football, a lot of different people, Scott Van Pelt, a lot of different things in the media and sports media.

1:05And I feel like there's not a general consensus of like who's going to win the Super Bowl, who's going to come out of the AFC, who's coming out of the NFC. And like a lot of the matchups, especially that we're going to see in wildcard weekend there, it's kind of a toss up. And even we briefly talked about this with the Rams and Panthers, even though that the Rams, I think they're like 10 point favorites, but people are still saying like the Panthers have beat the Rams before. And Matthew Stafford, you know, has had some really bad games. So it's going to be very interesting for me to see because I feel like it's like not just me.

1:40everyone's freaking out and like nobody really knows how the season is going to end which is going to make phenomenal football to watch this weekend i'm so excited yeah i feel like the the thrill of reality television nfl is so real this year like this is like the best episode of summer house or the this is like caitlin bristow's season of the bachelorette This is the best season of football ever. Are you kidding? Because let's really think about it. Every good team was bad. People thought Lions Chiefs would be in their divisional championships. Both of them are out. The Bills are in, which people kind of expected, but nobody expected the Jags.

2:31Nobody expected the Panthers. Nobody expected the frickin' AFC South to be what the AFC South is and be one in the way that it was one. Taylor and Travis get engaged. Haley and Josh are pregnant. Cardi B is sitting with the owner of the Patriots. There is nothing else that I can compare this to than when Caitlin Bristow was on The Bachelorette and literally broke television. That's actually a great, great analogy. Caitlin, if you want to come on and talk at home. Or just hang. You let us know. You let us know. Anytime. More than welcomed. More than welcomed. I think that's honestly the last time I've watched that show.

3:11I watch Bachelor in Paradise every now and then, but I don't think, I don't really watch The Bachelorette and The Bachelor anymore. Yeah. Well, do you watch Secret Lives of Mormon Wives? Yes, I do. Because Taylor, Frankie Paul, is now the new Bachelorette. Oh, that's right. Which I think. I might have to watch that one. I think it comes out like this month. They started doing like clip promos. And I think that that was exactly what the franchise needed. They had to have a Taylor Frankie Paul moment. Otherwise, the franchise was just going down very, very quickly. Yeah. And they didn't even do a season of The Bachelor this season.

3:50Okay. That's why I was confused. That's interesting. March 22nd on ABC. Oh, that's so far away. literally so far away it's so far away it's gonna come by so fast though hopefully yeah but you know what we do have the nfl yes we do so let's get to do it our four downs for the stats of the week first down who is dominating right now who is the stat king this week now Giovanna you chose the player. I mean, you choose this player pretty much every week, but I was surprised with the one that you picked this week. Jags kicker Cam Little. And I guess maybe I shouldn't be because the Jags are facing the Bills this weekend, which this game feels like an any given Sunday game to me.

4:41Like this could go completely either way. I like I'm really I feel like usually I have an opinion. Most of the time I have an opinion and I feel pretty strongly and I can usually back it up. With numbers or vibes.

4:59And the vibes. This one, I really, I don't know what's going to happen. Like three weeks before, I would have said bills today. Who knows? But over the weekend, out, okay. Also, outdoor versus indoor. And I know like track athletes will feel very seriously about like indoor and outdoor, not the same. but outdoor NFL record for a 68 yard field goal. That is some freak. That's a freak shit. No, absolutely bonkers. And mind you, like Cam little is not, I feel like he's kind of coming up on the kicker scene. Cause like I pay attention to my kickers because of fantasy. I'm picking up a kicker every single week in my fantasy.

5:46So like a lot of the kickers I'm very, you know, acquainted with. Obviously, I love Brandon Aubrey, but Brandon Aubrey's been kind of suspect the last couple of games for the Cowboys. So I feel like it's kind of paved the way for some of these new kickers to come on the scene, especially when we see Chris Boswell, Steelers kicker, and then Tyler Luke Ravens kicker missing the amount of kicks they did. And then earlier that day, Cam Little just absolutely drills, drills this field goal. It wasn't even like, oh, did he get it? Oh, it's close. No, it was as soon as it was up, it was good. And he's 20.

6:24He's he's 22 years old. When you look him up on Google, it just says his high school. Like it doesn't have Arkansas on there. And I'm like, hello, South Southmore High School. That's funny. Yeah. But Arkansas, yeah. 22 years old. So I feel like this guy is going to be a like an absolute bombshell at 30. Yeah. Like looking at his picture, he's cute now, but like imagine him with like a little extra weight, a little stubble, jawline, and being like one of the best kickers in the league. I would say like 28, this man's going to be absolutely lethal. Lethal. With that hair, oh my God. I wonder if his mom's side has balding or not.

7:14At first, I thought you were talking about like his ability. And I was like, yeah, he's going to be a generation kicker. And then I realized you're talking about his look.

7:25That's hilarious. You know, his stats, though, are actually really, really good. And I feel like I am a personality makes you hotter, girl, or like something that you've done or things that you do, like what you do is always hotter to me than what you look like. And you can see that in my trail of butterface boyfriends.

7:52But his field goal percentage this season, 88.2%. Honestly, that's tied for 18. So middle of the pack, 98 % on the extra point, 68 on the long and 140 points total, which is fifth. So middle of the pack for actual percentage, but 98 % in an extra point is what you need. And the 68 long, like I feel like some of his success is because he is like any given Sunday in a player. Really anything could happen. Like he could kick 68 yards for fun this week. And I like that for him. So a little bit of breaking news. The commander's offensive coordinator, Cliff Kingsbury, is leaving the organization to pursue other opportunities.

8:43Interesting. Which in my brain immediately makes me think of he's he's wanting to be a head coach. And some of these teams that are needing a head coach, I've probably contacted him. already and maybe put the bug in his ear about like, hey, this could be an opportunity for you because like what is leaving the organization to pursue other opportunities? And apparently like he met with Dan Quinn today and they agreed to mutually part ways. That's interesting to me because if Dan Quinn knows he's getting interviewed, why would you leave the organization that is currently or, okay, so my first thought is why would you leave the organization in this fashion and say that if you're going to pursue head coach opportunities, why wouldn't you just stay until you get hired if you're in situations where you have opportunities like that?

9:38Like, why wouldn't you just stay until you get hired? That feels like a really weird move to me. But now what I'm thinking is there's a chance that he was getting fired. And Dan Quinn said, you have the opportunity to walk away. I know in like very, very high profile companies, they will give C-suite level employees the opportunity to walk away before they fire them. So I think that that could also be what it is. Maybe he's not getting interviewed to be a head coach. He's getting fired and they're going to be bringing on someone new quickly. And they gave him the opportunity to kind of walk away because they like him and respect him, which honestly, if that's the case, it's a good show on him of like, my team knows that I'm not doing a good enough job, but they respect me enough to let me do this in a respectful and happy way.

10:27Yeah. I mean, the commanders, like they weren't problematic to me this season. And obviously they had a bunch of injuries that they had to deal with. So this one is very interesting. I think your second theory is true. Cause like, why would you put the cart before the horse and like leave to pursue other opportunities. I don't know. Speculation. Again, breaking news. You'll probably know more by the end of the day what was actually said. What are those other opportunities he was alluding to? So interesting. Sorry, I had to just throw that in there. What if he's like not doing anything football related at all?

11:04He's like, you know what? That was a lot. I'm not having fun anymore. Let me, like maybe he's becoming an announcer or maybe he's like pursuing something completely new. Like maybe he's moving to Italy to renovate a one euro villa. I don't know. Like other opportunities. Oh my gosh. Oh, and apparently this is from Shefty himself. And this, a change in DC of the DC, Joe Witt Jr. Also out as the commander's defensive coordinator. So they just fired both. Yeah. Wow. Wow. This is very interesting. I'm very excited to see the press on this because, yeah, was the offensive coordinator fired or did there's some, I'm like really going conspiracy theorist here, but did they fire the defensive coordinator and the offensive coordinator said, if you're getting rid of that guy, I'm out.

12:01It's very interesting. This is, this is really interesting. And now like the NFC East, I actually had this later in our four down episode, so I'll save it for them. But the NFC East have made a lot of moves. defensive and offensive coordinator, which NFC East include Giants, commanders, Cowboys, Eagles. So the Giants fired their defensive coordinator. Commanders have just fired their defensive and offensive coordinator. And the Cowboys fired their defensive coordinator this morning. Well, I feel like we can't say that the commanders fired him. We have to say he left. Well, it's yes, but now I'm confused on the verbiage for the defensive coordinator because it says he's out.

12:43So did he get fired or did he leave too? It says fired. I don't know. We'll see. We'll see. Interesting. Okay. Let's go back to our stats. Stat leaders for the 2025 season. Let's run through them. Forced fumbles. Joey Bosa on the bills. Defense five forced fumbles. Total tackles. Jordan Brooks, Miami defender, 183 tackles. That's a lot of tackles. in 18 games. That's over 10 per game. Okay. It tackles, tackles who like tackling when someone has the ball. I'm serious. I don't actually know this tackling when someone has the ball or just tackling someone who could be have the ball. No, I think it's tackles like when, when they have the ball.

13:34Cause like, obviously you can't tackle a quarterback. That'd be a sack. Well, I mean, behind line of scrimmage. But like whenever somebody has the ball out to tackle, it's also like not really hard to rack up this number, I feel like, because you get attributed to like, let's say like you got his foot and your other teammate came in and actually finished the tackle. That would still count to one of your tackles too. Okay. So it would be interesting to break down like solo tackles versus total tackles because that can be, you know, one of those stats that are like, not very forthcoming and like don't tell you the whole truth, but yeah.

14:14So 183 is a lot. Yeah. So anytime a defensive player initiates contact with a ball carrier, that results in bringing him down and concluding the play by either a solo effort or joined by another teammate. So if you're involved in that player going down. So like when Jameer Gibbs is breaking 19 tackles, as he does is every player who's broken is who's like, who's like in there. Are they getting credited? No, I think you have to actually like stop. Like if it's a, if it's a broken tackle, it's a broken tackle. You don't get, you don't get credit for that. But the person has to actually be like stopped in some fashion and then taken down, which is why, again, the solo tackles to total tackle ratio is interesting because if you were, like I said, if you were taking somebody down with just their foot, but Jameer Gibbs is still having his other leg and still trying to run.

15:08but then your teammate comes in and finishes the tackle, then, yeah. Okay, I got it. Sacks, Miles Garrett, 23, Browns defender with the celebration in the middle of the game. Interceptions, Kevin Byard III with seven on the Bears defense. Bear down. You want to run through the rest? Yeah, Devontae Adams, he had 14 receiving touchdowns. touchdowns. That was a stat leader Rams wide receiver receiving yards. JSN talked about him a lot this season, 1793 Seahawks by receiver receptions, which this is interesting because the Rams had two of their right receivers on stat leader list. Receptions was Pukunakua at 129 receptions, rushing touchdowns, no surprises here.

15:59Jonathan Taylor at 18 Colts running back Rushing yards was James Cook, 1621. He is the Bills running back and then passing yards and passing touchdowns. The one, the only Matthew Stafford, he had 4 ,707 passing yards in 40, a whopping 46 touchdowns. Crazy. That's insane. 46 touchdowns. 46, bruh. Okay. This is a real question. Why do quarterbacks not dance in the celebrations? I mean, Brock Party does. He'd be doing his little white boy, Dougie. Yeah. But he's the only one. Yeah, I feel like, well, did you see there was a video of Aaron Rodgers? He literally did like a Super Mario jump. Like, he literally did that after.

16:49Yeah, it was so cringy. But I feel like we don't see the quarterback celebrations a lot because the cameras always just panned on the end zone. yeah and like with all the receivers and stuff so i feel like they do a little something something but like we don't get to see it a lot yeah but i feel like that's true i think it's probably like a fist bump or something but i'm like i'm like why aren't you waiting for your main guy to come down there to like get in on the little like you know whatever yeah i'm just wondering like you guys are all getting in the robo where's the quarterback

17:23the quarterback should be on top like leading the main quarterback is the jockey isn't that you called him in the rowing team? Where's he at? They just leave him over there. They really do. Put him in the rowboat.

17:38Okay. Well, updated season leaders. We have a new passing leader again. Matthew Stafford officially passed Dak Prescott. Dak was last week's passing leader in week 17 with 4 ,482. Matthew Stafford is now the new leader at 4 ,707 yards. James Cook remains the rushing leader I just kind of talked about that. He finished the season with 1 ,621 rushing yards. And the receiving leader, as I kind of just mentioned, Jackson Smith and Jigba at 1 ,793 yards. So what's crazy about this is James Cook only got 15 yards in the last game because his previous yardage was 1606 and then it was 1621. They didn't play any of their starters because Josh Allen literally took the first snap so he could extend his consecutive starting consecutive start game streak.

18:32And then that's like he went out the game. Yeah. Crazy. Crazy. All right. Let's go to conference check-in. Second down. What's going on? The playoff picture. Packers versus Bears. 49ers, Eagles, Rams, Panthers going down this season. in some of the notable games coming up. Packers-Bears is one of the oldest rivalries in the league. I think that it's honestly a huge... I think it's kind of a bummer that these are the two teams who had to play each other, that you had to do a division rivalry game in the playoffs because there's just so much more attached to it than like a Rams game. So much on the line.

19:22Yeah, like... Yeah, I don't know. It makes me not, I mean, I don't think that the Packers, I honestly kind of don't really understand how they squeaked in, but they did. And like numbers wise, yeah, they squeaked, they're in. But watching like the Packers versus watching the Rams, watching the Packers versus watching the Texans, I'm just like, the Packers are not in the same league in my mind. But I think that the Bears are. I think that the Bears definitely have it. I think that the Bears have played so well all season in challenging situations. So I can't. The only reason I can imagine the Packers winning this one is because it is a division rivalry.

19:57And there is so much emotion packed into this game. And we know that with division, like division games almost like it feels like they shouldn't count because it's so different. It's so different than playing like a random ass team from another division that you don't care about. So I would love to see Ben Johnson take it. I think that that just adds to his lore as a first season head coach. I would love to see Caleb Williams in the youth of his career be able to do what he's done all season. If the Bears decide that they want to wait till the last two minutes to pull this out, I'm going to be so annoyed.

20:36If the Bears can get their running game going, because obviously notable injuries on the Packers defense, you don't have Micah Parsons. He's not playing at all in this postseason. And there's a lot of other injuries that the Packers are, I think, still missing. so if the Bears in my opinion if the Bears can get their run game going between Cal Manunga and DeAndre Swift if they can get them going and then you get Caleb Williams like the the Bears team is going to be unstoppable I agree with you the Packers I have questions it's just gonna be my thing from now on yeah but I think on paper top to bottom all the way from coaching to player ability talent.

21:17I think the bears are going to get the job done over here. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I think that the Packers might be scary next year, but I just don't think that they're scary this year, but again, division game. So who knows what could happen. And this season has been insane as well. The 49ers Eagles. So all of these are all in the NFC, a 49ers Eagles. This is interesting. these are the only two teams who have been represented in the nfc in the last three super bowls i think this game is going to be interesting i don't really want to listen to the reports on the 49ers having injuries as a reason why they might not pull this out that's just like absolute bullshit because the 49ers have had some of the most injuries all season long and i can't hear another man saying well the 49ers might not do it because they're it the 49ers have been injured.

22:12The 49ers were winning with Mac Jones. The 49ers were winning when George Kittle had injury. The 49ers barely even have, like, nobody is playing who we thought was going to be playing. Their backups have come in seamlessly. So I think that the, I'm getting really fired up about this. I think that the injury card for the 49ers is just irrelevant on that team. It should be a compliment to them, not like a negative or a takeaway. way. Yeah. Like if anybody's prepared to play with an injury, it is Kyle Shanahan. And that that's like one of the most undisputable facts of the 2025 NFL season. It is that Kyle Shanahan has created a program where it is a plug and play program and has trained his players to be, because it's not only the system, it's teaching the players how to perform when they need to perform.

23:04Yeah. Honestly, I think if this is going to go 49ers, I don't care. I don't think playoff experience really matters. Like as much as people give it credit for, I think it matters when you like for a matchup, like the Rams Panthers, I think that playoff experience matters, but, and this, no, I don't think it matters. The 49ers have been there before the Eagles have been there before. This is going to come down to who wants it more. And I think the 49ers to your point about all the injuries and what they've overcame this season, like they're going to go in there and do their ducky hopefully. Yeah.

23:39Yeah. So we'll see what happens. The Eagles do have the on switch of a let's play like a Superbowl team. We've seen that both in teams like the chiefs and the Eagles. It's what makes both of those teams really great in some capacity. So I can't imagine the Eagles doing something really good. I just don't think that the synergy on the Eagles has been, And I don't think they've been able to compliment each other enough as players this season to be able to pull something out against the 49ers. But we'll see what happens. There's no game that I think is going to be bad or a blowout this weekend. Rams, Panthers.

24:15Some people are saying that it's good that the Rams lost. And some people are saying it's good for the Panthers that the Rams lost in the last one. Who knows? I think that any team who has not been in the playoffs in quite some time is way scarier than you give them credit for it because they have something way more to play for. Matt Stafford has Super Bowl rings, which, yeah, he wants to do another one. But I don't know. I like the Panthers. I would love to see them get a win. It would be a just for the drama. It would be such a huge upset if the Rams lost. And just for the drama. I don't know if I can, statistically-wise, number-wise, and we'll talk about it a little later in the episode, Matt Stafford is clearly the MVP.

24:59But if he goes and loses to the Panthers, I don't know. That could single-handedly, in my opinion, slip Drake may end there. I don't know. We'll see. But the NFC West made history as the first division to ever have three 12-plus win teams, which is crazy. And mind you, they're all in the playoffs. So the Seahawks finished 14-3. Rams finished 12-5. 49ers also finished 12-5. Other tidbits, but the NFC has a division. The entire NFC North finished above 500, but the entire NFC South finished below 500. So you have the NFC West making history and the NFC North not really making history, but all the teams finishing over 500, which is a really good feat because you always have one team in your division that's like still kind of sucks um and then the north you have the bears packers vikings lions and then with the nfc south every single team finished below 500 and that included the panthers falcons and the saints so really interesting stuff going on the nfc the nfc east was the only division and the nfc and the afc to have a repeat champion this year which was the Eagles.

26:16And again, they're kind of had a little easy because the Cowboys, the Giants and the commanders had just really bad years. So not a year. Well, yeah, a really bad year in general. So the Eagles had it easy, but no other team was a repeat champion, which speaks to the fact of how crazy the season has been. Yeah. It's crazy. I do like the way that wildcard is designed because of things like this, because obviously it's not just like top one and two in each division. So I like that we have wildcard as wildcard for this reason, honestly, no other notes. No other notes. Quickly, before we move on to the AFC, Dallas Cowboys allowed over 500 points this season.

27:04They have never done that ever in their entire history of the franchise. And so obviously, yeah, exactly. Because when I saw that, I was like, that's crazy. 500 points, never allowed. Matt Iberflues, their defensive coordinator, was fired this morning. And I have my pick for the new defensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys. okay i would love to see raheem morris come and be a defensive coordinator for the cowboys raheem morris was just fired as the falcons head coach but before you think i'm crazy raheem morris before he was the falcons head coach was the defensive coordinators for the bucks the falcons and the rams guess when he was defensive coordinator for the rams when they went to the super bowl so that is my pick for there's some other guys that i think that are floating around there.

27:55That'll be a good plug and play for defensive coordinator. But I'm looking at Raheem and I'm not sure if he would take like a position cut going from a head coach to a defensive coordinator sounds crazy, but it's really not that crazy. Cause if no other team calls you up, then I guess you could go back and be your defensive coordinator, which he has a defensive mind too, which is why he's like, yeah, what he's like known for. So how long was he with the Falcons not long, right? Two years. I want to say. Yeah. I mean, I think, I don't know, like position cut, but also like quality of life and stress wise, being a coordinator sounds more fun than being the head coach.

28:43Yeah. But when you have a good team and when you have a good OC and a DC, then being a head coach doesn't, your job doesn't get easier, but it's a little bit more like palatable. I feel like. Like you can handle stuff a little better. Dan Campbell with Aaron Glenn and Ben Johnson. Yeah, he was loving life. Loving, loving. Interesting. Okay, well, I'm excited to see that. I actually really love that. Really love that pick that you have. So we'll see if it comes true. Let's move into the AFC. Texans, Steelers, Bills, Jags, and Chargers, Patriots. You have in here apparently the Simpsons predicted the Jags winning?