Bears Run Ends, Seahawks-Rams Part 3, Patriots Hate, and What Now for C.J. Stroud?

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1:07Welcome to the Ringer NFL Show. I am your host, Shiel Kapadia. We are finished with divisional round weekend. What a game to cap it off. Bears, Rams in overtime. and then earlier in the day, Patriots take care of business against the Texans. We're going to talk about both those games, big storylines, what's up ahead in championship weekend and the Super Bowl. Joining me is my friend from the Ringer, Billy Gill. Let's take a break. We come back with Billy. The Ringer NFL Show is presented by FanDuel. FanDuel's got it all. Same game parlays, quick bets for jumping in live and your way so you can build the bet that fits your play.

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2:23all right we are back here on the ringer nfl show with billy gill billy let's start with bears rams because i thought that was a classic i was ready to come on here the bears are america's team this is their year i'm emotionally invested in them when caleb williams threw that touchdown to cole comet he's fading back he chucks it 40 yards i thought this is their year. They're finally going to do it. And then they don't do it. It goes to overtime and they lose. But I find myself a little bit sad. Even though I'm not a Bears fan, I'm not from Chicago. I don't have any real connection to the city of Chicago or this team, but I'm a little sad that their run is over.

3:01I don't know what your big takeaway was from that game, but that's kind of how I felt afterwards.

3:05Sheil Kapadia:I feel like, you know, this is like one of those things. We could be happy with the progress, right? Like they have to go all the way to the Super Bowl. There's other storylines we can fall in love with here in the coming weeks. You know one thing that I don't like, Sheil, and I feel like this is an injustice to the way that this game will be remembered when you go back and you look at the box score or whatever. So you mentioned it. He chucked that ball 40 yards down the field to Cole Komet in the end zone somehow, seemingly wide open. They were trying to get an offensive pass interference call, which is not going to happen in that spot, which wasn't offensive pass interference anyways.

3:38Sheil Kapadia:But when you go back and you look at the stats, you know how that comes out? 14-yard touchdown pass. That is not doing justice to that play whatsoever. I don't like the fact that he runs all the way back there, throws the ball 40 yards, and you only get credit for the 14 yards. We have to do something about this. I actually started laughing when Mike Tirico said that, like after they got all excited and then they came back and Tirico's like, that goes down in the box score as a 14-yard touchdown. I started laughing because I'm like, that is not a 14-yard touchdown. Yeah, I think Caleb Williams' box score from this game is deceiving with the three interceptions.

4:10One of them's on fourth down, So it's like, you got to just try to throw it anyway. You know, you're not going to take a sack there or whatever. And then I don't know what happened in that play in overtime. Chris Collinsworth was putting it on DJ Moore, the interception, because the Bears, they had so many missed opportunities, Billy. They had a fourth and two fail that ends in interception. They had a third and one and then a fourth and one. They fail on both of them. Turnover on downs. They had a third and one fail. They have to punt. They had a first and goal from the Rams five yard line and they run it three times in a row.

4:40and then they throw it and it's another turnover on downs. And then the biggest one, they're at the Rams 48 yard line in overtime and Caleb Williams throws the interception. I did feel like Caleb Williams and Dennis Allen, the defensive coordinator to a degree, kind of saved boy genius Ben Johnson here. Cause I wasn't watching this game going, oh, Ben Johnson's on a heater. Ben Johnson's cooking here. Caleb Williams kind of saved him. And if he could have just come through with one of his, I mean, he's got all those creative play calls, the hook and ladder, all the fun stuff he does. I didn't see any of those today from him, Billy.

5:14Sheil Kapadia:I was wondering if we were going to see Ben Johnson make the end of regulation about Ben Johnson and go for a two-point conversion there. Do you think he should have? I mean, now that they lost, you can say, yeah, right? But probably not. They probably made the right call, right? But we were here and we were watching the ringer offices. And as soon as they got the six, we're like, what are we doing here? Is this a two-point conversion situation? Are we going for one? Are we going to end this year in regulation? Because, I mean, you have the momentum, right? I like this Bears team. I think I like this Bears team.

5:46Sheil Kapadia:I think that you're right. This could have been America's team. We're still going to have the cheese grater hats from a couple weeks ago. We're still going to have Caleb sticking out his tongue and actually grating the cheese. We're not going to lose that. We'll still have this moment in time. But they have to kind of do, I guess, what the Lions never did a couple years ago, which is kind of get over that hump. Because it's funny looking back where you had Dan Campbell and it was in the NFC Championship game, right, where afterwards he was like brought to tears. That's why a couple of years ago, the Lions were crying and Dan Campbell was like emotionally, he's like, you know, we were right there.

6:18Sheil Kapadia:And sometimes, you know, looking back, we missed the window. This could be a thing where you, and now it's kind of like, maybe he was right. Maybe it was right two years ago and they missed that window. And we were all like, come on, Dan Campbell, you're going to be back next year. And you're going to be back every year after that. And they haven't gotten back. So I guess maybe that's what the Bills were thinking, but Ben Johnson, man, maybe this was your shot here. We think that maybe this is a good looking thing here with Caleb Williams, but this could be maybe this was your Cinderella story on Clockstruck Midnight.

6:47I think 48 hours from now, Bears fans will be like, we have Ben Johnson, we have Caleb Williams for the next however many years. We're excited. We're going to get back. You are right though. Sometimes you think you're going to get back and you end up looking back five years later and you're like, that was actually our best opportunity. I actually don't think that's going to be the case here because I feel like they have a lot of things they can upgrade specifically with like the defensive talent and the defense played really well in this game. Did we did we get the right two teams, Rams and Seahawks?

7:19I kind of feel like we did, right? If we just sit back and say, who were the two best teams in the NFC for most of the year? It does feel like it was the Rams and the Seahawks.

7:27Sheil Kapadia:I think that we did get the right two teams. And I think that we're going to get a great NFC championship game because they played twice this year. and both times have been decided by less than three points. So it seems like it's going to be a good game. It's not like what we saw yesterday in the Seahawks game and the 49ers. Now, granted, the 49ers are very injured, but the Seahawks looked like a team that no one can compete with this weekend, right? But that's not going to be the case, hopefully, next weekend. I'm hoping that next weekend we get some good conference championship games. I'm a little concerned about the ASA championship, if I'm going to be perfectly honest with you.

7:58Sheil Kapadia:We'll get to it, yeah. Well, when we get there, we can get there. But I'm hoping, and there are storylines. there are a storyline shield that we can be looking forward to in the Super Bowl should these teams make it and it's the right combination of teams we could also have a disaster Super Bowl yeah have you thought about like this I mean it's possible we get Darnold versus Stidham and it's also possible we get Stafford versus May I mean those that's kind of a that's a lot of variance in just the now people are going to watch the Super Bowl no matter why we don't care what do we care about ratings we care about you know ratings for the ringer NFL show but We don't care if you watch, you still got to listen afterwards.

8:34But I don't know, because I think there's going to be a lot of talk about like, will there be interest if it's Darnold versus Stidham? And I kind of feel like people are just going to be interested no matter what. It might not have the same juice. It doesn't have the same big names. But does it really matter which two teams make the Super Bowl? What do you think? You're you're a man of media. You know, you should have a good answer for me here.

8:54Sheil Kapadia:I like that. I think I'm going to make business cards to say Billy Gill, man of media underneath. I don't look we're gonna watch the Super Bowl regardless right obviously I think best case scenario for all of us involved who love football and the storylines is if you get Stafford and Drake May right because the added storyline there is they've been going back and forth who's the MVP who's the MVP both you know teams both families have made cases and we're going to know who the MVP of the league is three days before the game because they do that the NFL honors on that thursday night so headed into the super bowl we're going to have one of them if the two of them make the super bowl one of them will have been named the mvp and the other one and their fan base will feel like one of them was snubbed so we're going to have an instant kind of like did the voters get it right who's going to actually be the mvp of the game then if one of them wins the mvp of the league but the other one wins the super bowl wins mvp of the super bowl which one is more important?

9:53Sheil Kapadia:Is it MVP of the league? Is it Superbowl MVP? There's storylines out there, Sheil, unless of course it's, it's Stidham against Darnold. Then we're not going to have quite the juicy storylines. Yeah. That'll be a little different. Listen, I thought that I was getting ready to come on here and rip Sean McVay for this game because I thought some of his, I thought he turtled at the end of this game, you know, it's third down two Oh six left and he hands the ball off. Like they had a chance to put the bears away where we never get that magical Caleb Williams moment. And I know you're saying, Sheila, you got to run the clock there.

10:25Well, you don't because there's 206 left. The clock's going to stop anyway. At the two-minute warning, I was shocked that he did not trust his veteran quarterback there to try to get a first down and just not give the Bears the football back at all in regulation. But it didn't end up burning him. I even thought, Billy, with 13 seconds left and two timeouts in regulation, we've seen teams sitting out with the way field goal kickers can kick. 13 seconds left and two timeouts left. I'm like, you should be trying at least to score here. It doesn't mean you're going to. And he just took a knee there.

10:57So McVay has made all these strides with the nerds like me who are like, go for it on fourth down. Be good with game management. He's been much better this year. He was not good in this game. But, you know, can I really rip him? Because he just got his team to the conference championship game.

11:10Sheil Kapadia:Could it be a situation where he saw what Josh Allen did headed into halftime yesterday where it's like, oh, let me try to make something happen here. Then they lose the ball and then you lose the game. if you give up the ball on they were they were near midfield so if you give up the ball on like the 40 yard line the Bears still had one timeout left so they could have seemingly gotten one big like 15 yard chunk and then tried for field goal and you didn't want to risk blowing it there I guess what's this thinking I mean ultimately it's like a one percent chance well here's the thing it didn't matter but it didn't matter not because they got the ball in overtime and immediately scored.

11:45Sheil Kapadia:No, it took an interception, which was like inside of their own 30, which would have led to like an easy field goal that led to them getting the ball back to then going and kicking the field goal. What a game, man. All right. Before we get to the AFC championship game, the weather was a big factor in this. In all of these games, too. I love it. I love the weather. Stop trying to put everyone in a dome, right? This is football weather. This is what these games are supposed to look like. I agree. I I totally agree. But in this Bears Rams game, I wanted to ask you about a couple of things. One, I don't know if you caught Jason Garrett during this game.

12:20So, you know, they go to the four of them. Everybody's got the ears covered, Billy, except Jason Garrett. I need to know. Are this man's ears always hot? Does he not look good in the snow hat? Because I'll tell you what, I have one good snow hat that fits me. I've had it for a decade. If I ever lose that snow hat, all the rest of the snow hats look terrible on me. So that might be what's happening with Jason Garrett here, or he's just a hot ear man. Is he a hot ear man? What, Billy? Whoa, did you see him? I was shocked. It was 12 degrees. How are you not covering your ears, Jason Garrett?

12:52Sheil Kapadia:You know what's going on here? What's that? It's interview season. And Jason Garrett has been rumored to be going and interviewing for head coaching jobs. So Jason Garrett needs to go out there and be like, earmuffs, hats. I don't need any of that. I brave the elements. You put me in charge of your football team and I'm going out there bare ears. My naked ears will be out there on the sideline. I mean, he will be wearing the headset, but he's not going to put on any fancy hats. He's not going to put on any earmuffs. Jason Garrett was trying to send a message, I think, today with his fashion choice.

13:22I like that. He goes in for the interview. Jason, tell us your strengths here. Leadership, putting together a strong staff, discipline in my years, man. Just put me anywhere in the world. And those bad boys are going to survive. I like that. He's a football guy. He's tough. I like that. That's a good theory there. All right. The other thing was before the game, I never heard this before and I love this stuff. Melissa Stark comes on and says, I forget which team. She said their players are putting cayenne pepper in their socks to stay warm. Now, listen, we don't like to do a ton of prep for the show.

14:02We like to improvise, bounce off of each other. But I did send you a text because I felt like when you get a topic like this that you can dive into, really research, make some calls to your contacts in the league that I want to hear about it. So where are you with the cayenne pepper and the socks, Billy?

14:19Sheil Kapadia:Okay. So here's what I found out. So it was the Rams who were putting cayenne pepper in their socks and the idea behind it was to keep their feet warm. So I was looking into this and I was like, they have to have gotten this from somewhere. Where did they get this idea from? So I did some research, Sheil, and I found a website called thepracticalherbalist.com. And the practical herbalist says that cayenne pepper is rumored to have been used in ancient times as an effective foot warmer. Now, here's something interesting. And I'm quoting straight from their website. Back in 1987, the San Diego Chargers gave it a try while they faced the Denver Broncos on their home turf.

14:58Sheil Kapadia:It was mid-December, and this was something that was put out there by NBC announcer Jimmy Cephalo. So we don't know if it's true or false, but Jimmy Cephalo in 1987 said that the San Diego Chargers were trying this against the Denver Broncos. Now, then you go into this website and it's telling you how you should do it. It's saying that you should maybe mix it sometimes. You could put it in with cornstarch. You could put it with foot powder because you don't want too much. So the standard ratio that you should use when you're using cayenne powder is half a teaspoon of cayenne powder, stirred with one ounce of foot powder, and then you sprinkle it into your socks.

15:36Sheil Kapadia:And then you kind of let it sink in there. Now, if you have an allergy to peppers, this is not recommended that you do. So be careful about that. Also, an added thing, when I saw that it was the rams, here's something else that I found out, Sheil. and I don't know if this was like a double thing that they were doing or if it's just a coincidence, but do you know what cayenne pepper is also used for beyond just warming your feet? I do not. What do you got? It's also used as a bear deterrent. So this could be a situation where they were not only warming their feet, but they were playing the bears and this is used in bear sprays because bears have very sensitive, you know, like nostrils and stuff.

16:18Sheil Kapadia:So they use it in bear spray to kind of shoo away bears. So this could be a situation where they were warming their feet and they were shooing away these bears. Now, is this all, did it say what types of bears? Because I was recently asking my daughter, you know, you'll get to this point where your kids come home with all kinds of facts and you kind of have to act like, oh yeah, I know that, come on. Yeah, I know it. And I never know any of them. And so she'll come home and be like, if it's this type of bear, you want to punch them in the nose. If it's this type of bear, you want to get real big and they get scared.

16:49If it's this type of bear, just walk away calmly. Just don't run. Whatever you do, don't run. I'm like, I never learned any of this. So I'm just wondering if the cayenne pepper, which for a specific type of bear, then I can impress my daughter tomorrow with this knowledge.

17:04Sheil Kapadia:I'm going to look, I'm going to dig more deeply into this offline and I'll let you know. I do know the bear thing. So I know that some you have to get very big. And then we have a friend that's like a zookeeper and he would say that you just say, hey bear. And you go like that. You have a friend who's a zookeeper? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's incredible. Yeah. So he tells you to get real big and say, hey, bear. And then you scare off the bear. The problem is, I don't remember if it's black bear or brown bear that you do that with. And if we're going to be honest, if a bear is coming towards me. I'm not going to identify him.

17:31Sheil Kapadia:And look, like if it's nighttime, like I'm not going to in the panic, I'm not going to be able to fully. It could be a polar bear. I wouldn't know the difference. Like I'm not going to be able to a koala bear. I can't assess if a bear is coming towards me and I'm half asleep or whatever. I'm not going to know the difference and I'm going to be concerned. Let's take a break. We come back and we will talk about that. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business. Fast, reliable internet means everything for your business and even this podcast. That's why I trust Spectrum Business. They keep companies of all sizes connected with internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile services, plus 24-7 US-based support.

18:11Millions of business owners already trust Spectrum Business. So visit spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply. Service is not available in all areas. The AFC. The Ringer NFL Show is brought to you by FanDuel. Four teams left, two games, and with a trip to Super Bowl 60 on the line, FanDuel's turning on playoff mode. And right now, all customers get a profit boost pack during the conference championship round. That means you'll find a pack loaded with multiple profit boosts waiting for you in the app. more boosts means more ways to level up your playoff bets. So visit fanduel.com slash NFL and grab your profit boost pack for the NFC and AFC championships.

18:5721 plus and present in select states or 18 plus and present in DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Opt-in required. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable profit boost tokens. Restrictions apply, including any token expiration and max wager amount. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit RG. dash help.com. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. All right, we're back here on the Ringer NFL show. All right, so let's just how do we feel about this matchup? So Patriots beat the Texans on Sunday afternoon. It's a weird game. Eight turnovers. CJ Stroud will get to him.

19:36He looks terrible. Drake Mays fumbling all over the place, but does it matter? Does it not matter? Patriots win decidedly at home against the Houston Texans. Now they go to Denver and they are going to face Jarrett Stidham. We talked about it on the previous show with Deontay. Stidham will get the start over Bo Nix. And I'm telling you right now, Billy, Sean Payton is going to launch an incredible propaganda campaign this week where by the end of the week, we will have every national reporter convinced that not only are the Broncos going to beat the Patriots, they're going to score like 42 points.

20:16And Jared Stidham's been training his whole life for this moment. And I've made fun of Sean Payton's propaganda campaigns before, but then their team was like awesome this year. And now they're in the AFC championship game. So I was wrong, but I haven't gotten your take on this. How do you feel about the matchup? How do you feel about having an AFC championship game with Stidham? Is there anything we can do about this? Does he have a chance? Is he going to be in the Super Bowl? Where are you with this wild story?

20:42Sheil Kapadia:Well, there's nothing we can do about this. We have to kind of just tolerate the situation here. So, okay, here's the good thing that maybe Sean Payton has like up his sleeve and Jared Stidham have up their sleeve, right? Is there's no game tape on this guy. Why is that? Because this season he has one snap, which is a QB knee on October 26. So technically it was one rush for negative one yard and a 44-24 win over the Cowboys. So that's all the action that he's seen this year. Last season, he played in three games. You know how many passes he attempted in those three games that he played in last year, Sheil?