Chapter 1: What impact does John Harbaugh's hiring have on the Giants?
It's the Boomer and Geo podcast from WFAN. And we're coming to you live from the middle floor, tough studio, Boomer Esiason, Greg Giannotti.
It's Boomer and Geo on the fan, simulcast across the country on CBS Sports Network and wherever you are on the free Odyssey app. Good Monday morning, MLK Day. I know a lot of you are off, but we are here breaking everything down. Probably got some people watching, more people watching on CBS Sports Network this morning to break down Divisional Playoff Weekend.
Two great overtime games, one blowout game, one halfway okay game, but man, I tell you, Last night, the Chicago Bears and the L.A. Rams with this overtime game and a play if the Bears had gone on to win that would have gone down in Chicago Bears history as one of the great plays in their franchise history. And I'm talking the Bears have been around forever.
that fourth and four Caleb Williams touchdown pass to tie the game in regulation. Just amazing. Josh Allen is out. There's some tears there. We got a backup quarterback in Jared Stidham after Bo Nix breaks his ankle in the championship game. The Patriots are back in the Seattle Seahawks dominating.
Tomorrow will really be a John Harbaugh day over there at MetLife Stadium as they introduce the new coach.
Good morning, Boomer. How are Yeah, good morning, Gene. A lot happened since we left on Friday. And a lot of that surrounds the NFL. And the first thing I do want to say in regards to that is that you remember there was a report coming out of NFL Network that the deal wasn't done with John Harbaugh yet. Yeah.
And I sat here and I told you, I said, there is no way in the world that John Harbaugh is going to back out on John Mara. There's just no way. And I wherever that report came or wherever they put that report out and putting giant fans in a little bit of state of shock with with the contract not being totally done yet.
I just thought it was really bad reporting because it makes John Harbaugh look bad. And John Harbaugh is not one of these guys that is a Shiv guy. He's a guy that stands for what Raven football was all about for 18 years. And Raven football had always been great. It was great in the preseason. It was great during the regular season. He won a lot of games. He won a Super Bowl.
And he always did it, I think, with the ultimate amount of respect. You know what I'm saying? Of course. There is a reputation that he has as a coach and that reputation is basically impeccable. It's impeccable. And I would just say that when that report came out on Friday, I was a little bit annoyed. Because my reaction to that report when you read it was the fact that this is ridiculous.
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Chapter 2: How did the NFL Divisional Playoff Weekend unfold?
Yeah. So he ends up going to Atlanta and it's two Philly boys now running the Atlanta Falcons. That's, of course, are Kevin Stefanski and Matt Ryan. Matt Ryan, both from Philadelphia. And I think Matt Ryan is really, really stoked about getting Kevin Stefanski to run that franchise. And I think they're going to keep Jeff Ulbrich as their defensive coordinator.
Yeah, he did a really nice job for them last year. And one thing I do like about Todd Munkin coming to the Giants is he's not going to be the next head coach for somebody else. He's going to ride this thing out with John Harbaugh. Yeah, he wants to be with John Harbaugh. So if it works... then you don't have to worry about the young offensive coordinator becoming a head coach somewhere else.
You've got to start all over with the offense. These guys are going to be together. So if Jackson Dart and Todd Bunken start working well together, then that's great because they're going to stay together, which I think is really a tremendous thing. We'll see who the defensive coordinator is. But as we know, you can turn it around very, very quickly.
And one of those two teams that turned it around quickly, the New England Patriots, now have a game where they're going to be facing a backup quarterback with a chance to get that franchise back to the Super Bowl. Now, we've seen it before. Have not really seen it, though, happen in the playoffs. Now, we've seen, obviously, Nick Foles take over in the regular season.
You've seen Hostetler take over in the regular season. You saw Tom Brady take over in the regular season. Yeah, but those guys took over in the regular season. That's the case. Right, but we haven't seen this.
Yeah, we haven't. And a guy go and win? Yes. In the playoffs? Yes. And lead the greatest comeback in the history of the NFL? My man Frank Reich? Oh, but I'm talking about win a Super Bowl.
I was talking about win a Super Bowl. Oh, I see. I thought you were talking about winning a game. Every guy that I mentioned prior to that was win a Super Bowl. So we've seen guys go and win. But they also played in the regular season. Right, right, right. Exactly. So this we had never seen before. A guy take over, do this, then win a Super Bowl. But...
If he wins this game, that would be absolutely amazing at this point. But we don't know, at least I don't know, a ton about Jared Stidham. I don't know if he's going to step in. I haven't seen him in practice. I have no idea. Sean Payton's going to be, of course, getting him ready. But this is a fascinating thing. And let's hope it's a fascinating thing.
He doesn't go out there and stink and give us a game like C.J. Stroud gave us yesterday. He could.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did CJ Stroud face in his recent game?
That's really it, right?
No turnovers, man.
That would be it, that he goes in there, and he's great somehow, and it's some sort of magical storyline, and we talk about it like we talked about Nick Foles and others, and even more so because this being his first start in the AFC Championship game. I mean, they're home. They've got a great head coach. They've got a good defense. But, yeah, it's going to be really tough.
And the way that the New England Patriots just pounded the Houston Texans yesterday, just so impressive. And, man, C.J. Stroud, he was bad against the Steelers. He was an atrocity in this football game.
I would have pulled him at halftime, honestly. And I was, you know, of course, we all have our text threads going. And I'm dealing with, you know, coaches. I'm dealing with players. I'm dealing with ex-players. I'm dealing with friends. And everybody's like, would you pull C.J. Stroud?
And I said, I'd give him to the end of the half and just to see how he does, to see if somehow, some way he'd get his team into field goal range or something. And he was horrendous. I thought that they were going to make the change, but he did come out and lead them to a field goal to start the second half. And he looked like he was playing better, more sure of himself.
And the game was close into the fourth quarter until the final touchdown by New England.
Well, it's because the Patriots were turning the ball over almost as much as the Texans were turning the ball over. And that's the only reason why it stayed close. I mean, I could not believe the interceptions and then Drake made with the fumbles and everything else. But you know how they used to do score-a-gami? Remember score-a-gami?
Yeah, yeah, of course.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of Kevin Stefanski joining the Falcons?
Well, Brian Biller told him. Yeah, look, we're going to run the ball with what I think was Jamal Lewis, wasn't it?
Yeah, back then.
We're going to run the ball. We're going to do a lot of play action and bootlegs. You're going to get us right into the right run, and then our defense is going to assault the other team. We're going to get great field position, and we're going to score a couple touchdowns and win games.
Yeah, and I know that he lost weapons, and I know Nico Collins was his number one target throughout the year. He didn't start the game, and then you lose Schultz, and then guys are dropping passes. I understand it wasn't easy, but four interceptions in a half, and with that defense.
He just couldn't handle the weather either. This is why you have to build your team certain ways if you have an outdoor, cold-weather city stadium. and you're fortunate enough to get home field advantage. So if you're the Buffalo Bills, you're the New England Patriots, you're the Jets or the Giants, you're up there in Green Bay or Chicago, I mean, Kansas City and Denver.
I mean, these are all outdoor stadiums in cold-weather cities, and you have to be able to run the effing football. You have to. And if you can't do it, which they couldn't do yesterday because the New England defense smothered their running game as well, you're not going to win these football games.
One more thing on the Bears and the Rams before we take a break. Did you think Ben Johnson was going to go for two?
I know he thought about it, but, man, there were a couple times where they had those short yardage plays where the Rams defense bowed up. Yeah. So I'm glad he didn't go for two. I mean, I still think, you know, kicking a field goal early in the game, there's nothing wrong with that.
I mean, you know, he is so overwhelmingly always going to go for it on fourth down that I think at the end of the day that ends up hurting them. Now, sometimes it helps. You know, he throws a touchdown on fourth and goal, which was great, but – Early on, I mean, you know, there's nothing wrong with taking a field goal. There's just not.
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Chapter 5: How did the Rams secure their overtime win against the Bears?
The ball was in the hands of Bears quarterback Caleb Williams in overtime.
Deep drop from Caleb Williams.
Bounces, looks, lets it go. It is. intercepted picked off a diving interception at the 22 yard line cameron curl saves the day that was jb long on rams radio then the game was in the hands or actually on the foot of the thicker kicker harrison mevis it's a 42 yard drive bears have three timeouts
With the wing that is back. The snap is good. The ball is down. The kick is away. The kick is good. End over end. The Rams are going to championship weekend.
That was Kevin Harlan. This guy, Mevis, reminds me of Janikowski a little bit. Yeah, and he was in training camp with the Jets this past offseason. That's great. Of course, another former Jet finding his way into the playoffs. The Rams over the Bears in overtime. You can't argue about the Jet kicking situation. That was good. No. You can't argue about the Giant kicking situation.
You see Jet people all over the place in the playoffs, and there's no... But they're not collectively together. I mean, they're all on these different teams. It's like a fungus. You just see them all over the place. Well, the problem with the fungus is when they were together, they couldn't do it.
So they had to leave and go somewhere else and get with other players and other organizations and coaches. That is just my life, Boomer. That's how it's been. The Rams over the Bears in overtime 2017. They advanced to beat the Seahawks in the NFC Championship game. After the game, NBC's Melissa Stark tried to catch up with Nevis.
Now, we're not quite sure if this was a technical problem or did he curse and NBC was quick to scramble this. Okay, so we talked pregame and you said, I'm used to these elements. This is backyard football. What was it like in that moment?
I mean, shoot, that's why we do it, man. No, that's definitely a technical problem. That's a technical problem? Yeah, I mean, what happens if someone with the delay on TV, you would just hear silence. You would not hear anything. They don't scramble things like that. So that's unfortunate that this large kicker gets an opportunity to be on national TV, and it came out like that.
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Chapter 6: What were the controversial calls in the Bills-Broncos game?
Great-grandfather was a bison or something. No, but I think if there's a fan base other than my own, well, not mine, but the Jet fan base that I think deserves the Super Bowl, it's the Bills. I mean, they're four years in a row they didn't make it, and they're saying goodbye to their stadium.
It's a division team, man. I understand that. They're beating the crap out of you just as much as everybody else has.
But the Jets have actually been the more AFC championship games. That one I don't understand. No, I just, I would like to see, I want to see Buffalo win. Close out their stadium with a championship. You know, not bad. All right. That's just me. Again, I don't speak for all Jet fans. I speak for myself. The Texans turned the ball over five times. C.J.
Stroud threw four interceptions in the first half.
I feel like I let people down and I'm not happy with that. It hurts and I'm not naive to it. I didn't play my best this year, but I'm going to respond. I'm going to keep my chest up, my chin up high, and I'm going to just keep battling for it.
It was a tough first half for him, and some people were speculating maybe they should have benched him at halftime. Well, I think a lot of people were speculating that, not just some people. Everywhere you looked, everybody wanted Davis Mills out there. The throat goat. Yeah, but he came out in the second half and played that first series well. He threw the ball well.
He looked like he was more confident, and they went right down and kicked the field goal. And there's some drops there along the way in the second half. Exactly. And, you know, he was not playing with all of his players, much like Josh Allen. But, yeah, he played, unfortunately, a poor game, and it showed. It came at the wrong time for sure. But that's back-to-back poor games by him. Absolutely.
He took responsibility after the game. Championship Sunday is all set. 3 o'clock next week, the AFC title game. Patriots at Broncos Sunday, 6.30 p.m. The NFC title game, the Rams at the Seahawks. What do we got? The Patriots 6.5 favorite?
What do we got? I think it's 4.5. 4.5? Maybe 5? No, I'm pretty sure it's 4.5. That's what it was, or it's what it was yesterday when I... I think it's got to move. Got to move. What do you think? You got your... I got my FanDuel app. Yeah, I got my FanDuel sportsbook, and it's five and a half now. Ah! Five and a half. It'll be a touchdown, I would think, by the game, right?
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Chapter 7: How does the NFL's catch rule affect game outcomes?
Yeah, they're going to try to get the full kneel down, but it's going to take a minute or two. Okay. Peter, continue, and if they have it, they'll let us know.
The Giants will introduce new head coach John Harbaugh at a press conference tomorrow at noon. Tonight is the college football playoff national championship game as Miami takes on Indiana. Saturday was media day. Hurricanes quarterback Carson Beck asked about college life.
Did you have class yesterday? If so, what class? And I know there was a pep rally on campus. What has it been like being you as a student this week, particularly yesterday?
No class. I graduated two years ago. So pep. would further explain why he had no classes on Friday. Obviously, I've been working towards other degrees now that I've gotten to Miami, but these programs take a little longer than just a year to finish, so obviously I'm not enrolling again next semester, so I'll be done after this season.
So now the question is, if he's not enrolled and they're playing a game, how is he playing college football if he's not enrolled in college? What I'm thinking is that he's speaking that he was in college last semester. Yes, probably as a grad student. And he was in graduate class or something like that. But this upcoming semester, he's not enrolled to be in it.
I don't know when Miami starts their second semester. And it already started. That's why they said the pep rally was on campus. College football's got to move everything up. Yes. It's ridiculous. I mean, they have to move everything up. The bowl game's up. All the college football playoff's up. And I guess they try to stay away from finals. That's what I'm assuming.
But the way that the timing works with the transfer portal opening, what, January 2nd and games still left to play and guys on the teams with games still left to play are entering the transfer portal.
And coaches are leaving in the middle of this whole thing. It's insane. The whole thing's a farce. These guys aren't going to class. Nobody cares. They're getting paid.
He's been in college for five, six years.
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Chapter 8: What are the predictions for the upcoming AFC Championship game?
I did. I thought everything that was going on there, they did a good job. Now, if you go to... Last night, with Devontae Adams, and they even made a reference to it, like, Bills fans have to be confused. I thought that should have been an interception because, to me, it was the same exact thing. And he ended up getting the call via catch and down by contact, which I thought was the wrong thing.
That, to me, the Devontae Adams thing would have been like a fumble. Because, again, I think both wide receivers have clear possession of the ball at one point in time in these scenarios. The other thing is that there is a rule about simultaneous possession, and simultaneous possession goes to the offense.
Do you know where that rule came from? Yeah, it was the fail Mary, and it was the whole thing with the replacement officials, that whole deal? No. It wasn't?
In 1988, my Cincinnati Bengal team is playing at New England, another one of these games where I threw four interceptions. No. And I hit Chris Collinsworth in the back of the end zone, and it was a simultaneous catch between him and either the safety or the DB of the New England Patriots. I forget who it is, and I was telling Chris this yesterday, and he...
ultimately remembered but and Chris was people realize Chris has a law degree so he is always arguing on the field and a lot of times he got calls overturned it was amazing but he didn't get this one overturned because in 1988 there was no replay review to help the officials to determine anything and back then they left it up to the officials to determine on their own what they thought was the case
So in this case, in New England, it ended up being an interception. I think we started season 7-0 that year. This was like our eighth game, and we ended up losing. All right, so the next year, the competition committee came back, and they wanted to clear it up to the officials.
They didn't want the officials to have to sit there and determine who got control of the football, and they just came out with the rule, simultaneous possession goes to the offense. I feel like that's kind of what happened with Brandon Cooks. That was simultaneous possession, knee down, back down, guy all over him.
And then the leverage that McMillan, the defensive back, has is that he's yanking the ball out as he's rolling over Brandon Cooks, who just basically gets hammered as McMillan throws his entire weight on him. So I couldn't sleep Saturday night because this made me crazy. And I did a poll, you know, one of those polls.
No, you did a poll. I did a poll.
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