37. Divisional Weekend Yap with JoJo Cash: Heartbreak and Heroball

0:22I'm Victoria, the game's on. Welcome back to your favorite football podcast by the girls for everyone. The game today, I have a friend, a friend of show, a sports software engineer, a Bills fanatic with me, my friend, Jojo Cash. Welcome to the game. Thank you. It's good to be here. We are going to have some hot takes from divisional weekend. So I can't wait to talk about it. I think we're both emotionally exhausted based on our text messages and your abrupt stopping of responding. I shut down. I stopped responding to everybody. Yeah. Nobody could get in. I was unwell. It was very emotional Saturday night.

1:17Very emotional. And then last night, Sunday, the second the Rams had the ball go through the uprights. Oh my gosh. I shut the TV off. Like the second that the refs put their arms up, I was like, I'm out. I'm done. This weekend has been too much. I can't handle it. I'm not having fun anymore. Oh my gosh. I thought the bears had it. They had it. That incredible throw from Caleb. Incredible to force the overtime. A lot of people are saying they should have won for two on that, But I don't know. That was crazy to just to end the game like that with the interception, right? No. Yeah. Overtime. Yep.

2:03Interception in overtime. Yeah. Okay. We're going to recap all of the games from the weekend. Then we're going to do an ins and outs list. And then we're going to talk about the crazy head coaching situation that I'm not ready to talk about, but we can't ignore it because it's on my feed and Adam Schefter is blowing my phone every three seconds. also adam shefter if you're listening to this like i really want to interview you because i want to know how did you get that job how like how did you become the guy when like news breaks it's under your name that contract has got to be insane he's always the first to know i don't get it yeah like when something big happens in my life like should i be calling adam shefter instead of like telling my mom.

2:47Absolutely. Also, whenever I'm fact checking for the game, if I'm ever using any kind of AI, I say fact check this via Adam Schefter. That's a great idea. That's a great idea. Yeah. Just have like a little bot for with him first. Yes, absolutely. Shefty bot. Shefty bot. Oh my God. Wait, that's genius. We should sell this idea to him. Nobody tell him we're going to put it in the contract.

3:23Okay. Let's start off with the first game of the weekend. Probably the hardest one for you. So And talk Broncos, Bills, 33-30 Broncos in overtime. Let's talk about the turnovers for the Bills. That was hideous and embarrassing. Honestly, I don't think it just came down to overtime. I think it also came down to those turnovers and the points off of them. You can't turn the ball over four times. You just can't. So bad. So bad. And it was just lack of carelessness with the ball. And it's just like, what are you guys doing? Come on, you got to tighten up for the playoff games. You can't do that against the Broncos D.

4:16You got to be way more careful, Joshie. I kind of have this hot take that every team with a good story, which was every team that lost this weekend except the Patriots, But every team with like a really good story, it almost seemed like they relied on how good their storyline was to take them into the next game instead of making sure that they were playing playoff caliber football. Like it's almost like they were resting on their laurels instead of being hyper strategic and hyper clean. Yeah, that's a great point. because it just it felt very not lazy but it felt a little like messy yeah messy that's the word it's yeah it felt so messy and definitely not the game they should have been playing like there was we had a couple good games like against the jacks it was okay but you gotta tighten up tighten up yeah yeah so what did you think i thought that honestly the game-defying play of that game was not even the Cooks.

5:28Was he down? Was he not down? It was the backwards throw from Josh with like a minute to go before halftime. And he just like tossed the ball. Oh, he lost it. He lost it. That just fell out of his hands. I'm pretty sure. Right. And then they scored three points after that. Right. Yeah. Because it looked like almost like intentional to me. It did look maybe he was trying to do like a lateral pass or an incomplete pass, but it went backwards. I don't know. That was part of the messiness. Like, yeah. Can you imagine if they didn't score that field goal? Because I feel like that sealed the emotional deal.

6:12Yeah. Going into halftime because if they could have held them or even gotten to the 10 time runs out, whatever. But like, Josh, why don't you just hold it and go down. Like your only job is to protect the football. Just protect it. Yeah. It's also sad to me to see Josh and Haley's perfect year come to a close. I know. Because like get married, get pregnant, Haley wins for her acting. And remember that Haley was originally a singer. So the fact that Haley was in Sinners that's now winning Grammys is insane. That's insane. Golden Globes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Golden Globes. Is that an Oscar? What do you win at the Golden Globe?

6:57No, it's a Golden Globe. You win a Golden Globe at the Golden Globe. Yeah. Grammy is music. Okay, this is embarrassing. We're good. We're good. This is a sports podcast. No one's going to check. Yeah, it's fine. Not my best, but whatever. So she won a Golden Globe for her acting. yep and josh allen will not be winning a lombardi it would have been a story back ending because of the ralph too just well the ralph slash high mark stadium slash i know stadium yeah okay as a bills fan yeah are you exhausted of the story that you're gonna make it and not making it because i'm a little exhausted of being like the bills are gonna make it and like all the hype for like, I'm like, I'm over the hype.

7:47Like, let's just, let's just ignore them for a little bit. No, do not ignore us. We will always be there. Well, we just, you know, we're working on it. It's, it's, it's in progress, but it's funny. Like every year the bills fandom has saying, this is our year. That's what we say every year is, This is our year. Next year is our year. It's fine. It's very dad. We'll get there someday.

8:22It's starting to get a little embarrassing, but, you know, we had a good run with McDermott, and we'll get there eventually. I think we just need a little shakeup now. Yeah, we'll talk about McDermott a little bit later. Yeah. Okay, the Broncos obviously took the W, barely but I thought the Broncos played a less aggressive but a better game than the Bills did the Bills were kind of playing chaos catch-up and the Broncos were kind of playing like this is what we do like it looked more natural for the Broncos the entire game which is kind of why I think the Broncos deserve to go to the next level regardless of who they played, I think that the Broncos are good enough to go to like the championship round next weekend.

9:13I don't know if I'm like ready to see them in Super Bowl, but I do think that they're good enough and have been one of the most consistent, complete teams that we've seen, which is why they were the one seed. But I just feel like their play and watching them, you watch them and you're like, okay, I get it. I don't know if I agree, but in that game, yeah, they did look a lot better than the Bills. So they had their stuff together and their defense was very good. And, you know, I just, I didn't think they were doing anything special, but they were stopping us. They did what they needed to do. And that's what the Bills needed to do.

9:52I keep saying we like on the Bills, but, you know. That's part of being a fan is believing that you're on the team, even though you like don't even know anybody on the team. Right, right. No, I know Josh. Yeah. Yeah. My best friend, Josh, all the time. I just had him over for dinner.

10:14So the final score in that was Will Lutz's 23 yard game winning field goal, 23 yards, like getting set up for an average field goal is like, obviously they're going to make it same thing with the Rams, like an average length field goal. If it's not over 50, I'm not that stressed. Maybe I should be. But Bo Nix breaks his ankle. That's awful. You're giving it to the Patriots now. Yeah. Sorry. Sorry. It hurts so much worse to watch the Broncos now move on instead of the Bills. Because it's like... Can you imagine Pat's first Bills in the conference championship? Like, that would have been epic. It would have been the game of the year.

10:59Yeah. the game. It would have been the Super Bowl, maybe better than the Super Bowl. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Well, because you'd be, you'd be more invested for you. It'd be better than the Super Bowl. that's true. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of the Patriots, cutie Drake May. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Can we go back? Yeah. What did you think about Trey White's penalty at the end of the bill scheme that caused them to have a much closer field goal? honestly i think i checked out

11:37i mean that's fair same hold on hold on wait is this is this the one on james cook no no that's okay first of all it was brandon cooks that was the catch i suck it's okay it's okay and cutting it out and trey white is they called defensive pass interference on trey to push you know it was a terrible call as well but to get them closer to the end zone to kick the field goal the game winning field goal okay so what i think about this call is I need the referees. I need not an analyst. I need not a random man from New York. I need there to be a referee Instagram page that tells me exactly what the rules are in the way that the refs believe the rules are.

12:38Because the rules on paper are not translating to the rules in real life. And we're seeing this. I don't know if it's because we expect more because replay assist. or if it's always been like this and I'm just thinking about penalties more, but there just seems to be so many bad calls in really, really important moments. And I do think it's probably because we can all see it on big screens more than ever before, slowed down more than ever before that like our faith in the refs is just so much less, but like what is pass interference really? because he has his hands all the way around, wrapped around his hips.

13:20I would, I mean, I don't know. That seems like you're interfering with the past if you're bear hugging him. That's fair. So, but nobody's getting cold in this way. So if you're not gonna, I don't, like he's not really impairing him. I don't know. Right, right. He wasn't, I don't think he was tugging on him, but I think he was touching him. Yeah. Yeah. And I think like him having a fit, he knows that they, like he probably are like, he knows that they're cooked. Yeah. Yeah. So I just think it made it a lot worse. Like it makes it so much worse and you don't see, I mean, I'm watching it over and over and like, it's so questionable.

14:07They're saying there are like 50 yards of penalties that last drive, Which is the loss of the game, which is them just playing messy football. Well, yes. Or bad calls. And. And bad calls. Yes. But like you expect so much more from like replay assists in a playoff game. Yeah. And it shouldn't just come down to the refs on the sideline. There's, you know, people in New York and, you know, there's it should be a lot more better. It should be a lot more better. Yeah. And then the Brandon cooks, cook, cooks, cooks, cooks, that call blew my mind. I think my official stance, if you catch the ball and you roll around and you stand up with it in your arms, I don't really care if it touches the ground.

15:00Yeah. I don't really care. It didn't. It didn't had it and he caught it then he was down and then what's his face caught it yeah and it's like okay but he was already down so when whatever i'm sick of seeing it to be honest because yeah breaks my heart because that was that was the point that was the the thing that yeah that was like the game definer to me was like that play and that call was like, I didn't have that much like hope after that. No. Yeah. Honestly, I, yeah, I need, I need to talk to some refs. I need them to speak out. I need us to have conversation with them. I need to know what's going on.

15:47And I think that there needs to be some type of re-regulation of rules. And I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, but like I think that we should only have five types of penalties you can call anything safety helmet to helmet never okay right like there's things but like tripping trip them it's a but we shouldn't have like holding horse collar pass interference improper organization on the field what that one pisses me off it's like okay the guy wasn't like two inches off who cares also neutral zone is fair game. Why not? Let's get fired up. Let's go. Like, I think you should be able to move into the neutral zone as long as you don't touch anyone.

16:34I don't know. I just think there's so many miscellaneous non game changing penalties that end up changing games that I as a viewer am like, why? I don't care. I don't care about illegal formation. Line up however you are. You want to put 12 guys in a single file line on the side? I don't care. I want to see what's going to happen next. Like, bring me the drama in a tackle sport as the drama in a tackle sport. And like, don't overregulate things that don't need to be overregulated. Like, I would much rather see us wear guardian caps for everyone than have an illegal formation call. Like, why are we not using our power for good?

17:14Right. That's a great point. That's a great point. Yeah. You know, you can't get me started on guardian caps anymore. but I love them. And I'm just saying. Okay, we got to move on. Any final words for... All right. It was a good, it was an okay season, I guess. And I am rooting for whoever's playing the Patriots, so. Great. Speaking of, let's talk about the Patriots. So Drake May and his cutie, cutie, cutie, ooty wife, Ann Michael May. Ann Michael May was seen wearing an I love Drake May shirt on the sideline. Okay. That's cute. That's adorable. Yeah. And so the Patriots did win this game. However, neither team's offense Patriots or Texans really did that much.

18:05Yeah. I mean, the Texans did a lot of negative CJ Stroud quarterback for the Texans, five interceptions. There was five fumbles throughout the game. Honest mess. Like I feel so sad for CJ. Yeah. Because we've all had days where like we wake up, we stub our pinky toe, we spill our coffee, our boss is a jerk, we get dumped, and then we feel fat and ugly before we go to bed. And it's just miserable. And I feel like that's the kind of day CJ had. And then to have to like get on a podium and say what happened is just awful. Right after the game, Like that's rough. That's rough. So bad. Yeah. So I feel like neither team played extraordinarily, but what?

18:58He went 20 for 47. Yeah. Like literally. Oh my. Six turnovers and eight plays or eight possessions. Yeah. It was a really bad day. Four interceptions, three sacks. His rating was 28. Yikes. I think that's lower than if you don't even take a snap.

19:27Yeah. It's pretty bad for a playoff game. You can't. It's like the storylines. The Texans have this great defense and they can really do it. I really believed in the Texans. And unfortunately, I do think that CJ lost this game for the team. Yeah. And that's really rough. Yeah. That's a great point. Their defense really stepped up all year. Yeah. Their defense really carried them. Barely get points on them. And then to see at 28 is like, that's just like an emotional defeat at that point. Yeah. Like I feel like when your lead guy, the guy that's been leading you all season. Right. Just can't pull it together.

20:12It's like just exhausting, like emotionally exhausting. Yeah. And I wonder if it's a lot to do with Nico Collins being out too. Like that could have been his security blanket. Right. Yeah. So they had Nico Collins out and then they had another, I believe another receiver out. So it's kind of like all of CJ's main targets were not there. So like, what do you do against? Right. But they got Christian Kirk. Yeah, so that game was crazy. The Patriots are going on to play the Broncos. I think that that's going to be an excellent game. It's going to be interesting with Stidham in for the Broncos now versus Drake May.

21:00Yeah, so it's like I'm almost blocking out that Drake Mays or that Bonex is not going to be in. Because I'm like, that's going to be such a good game. And I'm like, I don't know. A lot of defense. Yeah. Patriots are a great team. They're really well-rounded. So, I mean, if Stidham can do something, but I don't know. I feel like it's going to go to the Patriots because the Patriots are pretty well-oiled right now. But in case you wanted to know, Stidham was a fourth-round pick, 133rd overall by the Patriots in 2019. He spent three seasons as a backup behind Tom Brady and Cam Newton before going to the Raiders in 2022 and then signed with Denver in 2023 and hasn't played much since.

21:41But seventh-year veteran, 20 career regular season games with four starts. His record as a starter is 1-3. Passing for his career, 117 completion on 197 attempts, so 59.4%. 1 ,422 yards, eight touchdowns, and eight interceptions with a 78.3 overall passer rating. So he did have a really great career game. game 365 yards and three touchdowns with the Raiders against San Francisco in 2022 and then had a game in 2023 with the Broncos 20 out of 32 passes for 224 yards so he's capable just one game just has had two good games and only one of them was a little bit annoying two good games in three years yeah it's gonna be a big wake-up call like yeah you're playing the patriots yeah but there have there have been backups who have like won super that's true yeah i saw nick foals did you see that tweet yeah yeah it can be done yeah so it's gonna be interesting.

22:56Maybe he can pull it together and like pull something out. I think the game's going to be interesting. I hate a blowout. I love a close game no matter what. Like I would prefer a close game and a loss than like, well, I don't know. Like I didn't enjoy watching the Seahawks destroy the 49ers. That was like not fun to watch. Right. I didn't like it. I wasn't having fun. I felt really sad for the 49ers who had, I think they were, I think they were cracking all season long but they didn't act like it until this game right you know it's kind of like when you pick at your sibling for like five hours at a family dinner and then eventually they freak out like i feel like that's what happened i guess yeah i guess that's comparable yeah that's that's kind of what i thought that's exactly what happened But the Patriots, I don't know.

23:52They look good. Really good. I'm sure they're favored, even though it's home for the Broncos. And I think it could be a boring game, too. Like, just a lot of three and outs. Because the defenses are so good. I mean, we'll see. I just hope it's Nabla. Like you said, I don't. We need a close game. Like I need two scores at least for the Broncos. We need two scores. And then whatever happens, whatever happens on the other side, I don't really care. But like two scores is like not painful. Like the 49ers going home with six points, six, six is the most embarrassing point number in all of football.

24:36Like six points. And a playoff game. When you have McCaffrey that and Brock Purdy, come on what are you doing i do think that kiddle not being in the building was really rough on everyone because he's such a personality so i feel like yeah i saw claire george's wife post like we'll be watching from the couch and like i think he just got achilles surgery or is about to so like he's really out right i only would be there if he could yeah yeah but i wish that like i think that if he was in the building it could have had like maybe even a maybe they wouldn't of made a field goal. Maybe they want to.

25:16Another one. That was really bad. Right. Was it two field goals? Honestly, I don't even know. I'm not going to lie. Once the Seahawks started going up, I took a nap. And I woke up and I was like, this is depressing. Oh, gosh. Have you ever had one of those weeks where everything just feels like a lot and you're like, I want to finish the week feeling healthy and feeling strong and feeling confident, even though I have so much going on and I don't know how I'm going to fit it all in because I'm raising my hand, me. I feel like, especially with building this show and being busy and feeling so passionate about something that I lose track of time and like borderline forget to eat sometimes, I need something that can make my life easier.

26:08And honestly, Kuso Cuts does that for me because I can just grab whatever meat I want at the grocery store. And I know that I can make something delicious so quickly. I've been super into their Southwest seasoning on some ground beef as like taco meat for like burrito bowl or something like that has been my go-to over the last week because I want something delicious. I want something healthy. I want something with fresh veg. I don't necessarily want something frozen. And this really does just make my life super, super easy. So toss it in with some like lean ground beef or lean ground turkey, and then add in some like Greek yogurt as sour cream, some guacamole, some rice, and some veggie of choice, whatever that ends up being that day.

26:54And it's such a good little like burrito bowl. You can scoop it out with some chips and have the best snack. And I'm really grateful it's Kuso Cuts because I don't have to buy seasonings at the store. Like I don't have to worry about whatever cornstarch or weird ingredients are in other pre-made seasonings. Kusos has no crazy additives. It's delicious. The flavors are bold, so you don't need to use that much, which means that the actual seasonings last you for quite some time. So I'm super grateful for them. They make my life easier. They help me feel really healthy. And like, let's be honest, half the time is just about like feeling hot and feeling healthy and less about what you actually look like.

27:33And Kusos makes it easier for me to be that way, to like feel hot and healthy. And ultimately that's my goal at the end of the day. So thank you, Kuzos, for sponsoring today's episode. You can go to kuzocuts.com slash the game for 10 % off your order. It really helps us out here at the show. And you can also go to kuzocuts.com, choose your seasonings, and then type in code the game at checkout with no spaces for 10 % off that order. Again, thanks, Kuzos. Okay, last one. My saddest game of the weekend. Well, the Bills was really sad, but mostly because I have so many Bills friends. But my saddest game of the weekend was the Rams Bears.

28:16I am over the Rams. I'm over them because if you can't win by more than three points, I'm bored. and I'm bored of everyone saying that you're the greatest when you can barely win by more than three points if the only reason you're winning is a field goal then like I don't like it what is what was their defense even doing I mean their offense is pretty good I'll say that no they the Rams are a great team yeah pretty much overall yeah but they that was that was a tight game but i feel like it didn't look like it i don't like the storyline scraping by yeah and the rams have been scraping by the rams were scraping by the cardinals i was in real life at that game and i was like what is happening here and that's how i felt every game since that game and i'm like this isn't fun to watch like watching matt stafford do a clutch play in the final one minute why don't you just do something good in the middle like your team your whole fan base is gonna have to go on blood pressure medication well honestly same with the bears though because the bears whole thing has been that they can win under pressure and then unfortunately they didn't they i think they thrive kind of like the bills they thrive when they're down they come out of their shell and they love being the underdog caleb williams is such a dog I've always liked him, always believed he was going to be when he wasn't.

29:51You know, but he's going to be good in the future for the Bears, I think. Did you see the the pass at like four seconds to go? He ran like in my head, it's 20 yards backwards. I'm like, you are literally going the wrong way. Right. And then it was like a fade away. It was like a fade away catch. He's like throwing it up. I was like, oh, that's an interception. Yeah, like that's gone and it's not on the field. What did the Rams D even doing? They just like went off of them. They're just like watching it happen. This is an interesting plot twist. That was crazy. It was crazy. Yeah. And then to see at the end, the interception.

30:37Oh, it's heartbreaking. It was so awful, honestly. Yeah. Yeah. What do you think? Should they have gone for two or gone into overtime at the end after that catch? I feel like when it's a lower scoring game and your completion isn't like I feel like when you're not working as like a super well oiled machine play after play after play, it gets a little seedy. Yeah. And so I think just the nature of the chaos of that one, like the whole team was pumped up. So it really could have gone either way. Yeah. Yeah. But I don't know. I don't know. I never know. Honestly, like I feel like it's a, it's a coin toss every single time.

31:24Yeah. So I may be thinking about Ben Johnson. I'm kind of surprised he didn't go for two. Right. But the Rams defense was already fired up. And I feel like with them being that fired up and then mad, so like already fired up to like stop it and then angry that they didn't the chance of a two-point conversion were pretty low yeah yeah and it's it's tough because they were getting stuffed at the line too like a few times every run they were trying to do um yeah i think they made the right decision going going into overtime overtime yeah i think i think it was their defense was in a good place and i think it just would have been a dog fight, you know, which it was.