Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
We are back with fourth and final hour of the program. Bob Pompiani, not with Joe Starkey. He'll be back tomorrow enjoying a nice day off. Sean Myers behind the glass for Austin Bechtel, who will be on the air tonight. Didn't sound like Joe was enjoying a nice day off earlier. I know he didn't. But he probably is, just to get away from it all. Sometimes you do need to do that.
But, of course, he gets the news that Sean McDermott is fired, which I think he was okay with prior to how this all went down. And then he gets even further news that he didn't like. I'm sure that Brandon Bean is not just kept, but promoted to GM slash president. of the organization, yet many people in Buffalo believe he was the problem there. So Sean McDermott is out.
That's the breaking news that started this morning that we got into. Again, there are a lot of openings here, and so the Steelers may, in fact, want some of the guys from the Rams, but the longer they play, the later you get to interview them. And it's very interesting. I also thought, Sean, at the beginning of this day, if John Harbaugh and if Kevin Stefanski knew the Buffalo job would be open,
Would they rethink what they did? It's too late for that. But if they knew that was going to happen, I don't know that they did or didn't.
Chapter 2: Would Harbaugh or Stefanski have considered the Bills coaching position?
Or you can't afford to miss an opportunity if you like the place you're going.
There had been talk that Buffalo would move on from McDermott for a while now. And I would assume that most people, including those guys who I'm sure get intel that we're not privy to, they probably knew if Buffalo doesn't
get to a certain point whether it be the super bowl or the afc championship that they would probably move on from him so they had to at least have a suspicion that that could be a possibility the question is do they want to wait and see how it plays out or would they rather take a really good offer before some of the other jobs start to fill up because if you're waiting and then let's say buffalo wins and goes to the super bowl well then that job's not coming open and then you might be
on the outside looking, and now Harbaugh probably was going to get a job no matter what somewhere. But I sort of understand their decision. They had to have known, though, that could have been a possibility.
Because, again, it's been talked about for a few years now that Buffalo could be potentially in the market for a new coach if they don't get to what their goals were, which is to make and win a Super Bowl.
Well, Terry and Kim Pagulo, the owners up there, I would imagine are not going to be very patient with whomever comes in next because this is eight years of Josh Allen. They haven't been able to do it. There have been roadblocks all the time, principally Pat Mahomes, Joe Burrow to some degree, and Lamar Jackson, but they haven't been able to do it.
So now if you are this next coach, I mean, what are you being told about what the expectations are? And I would say immediately. To me, you've got to come in and get to a Super Bowl, right? I mean, how much time, how much slack will you get? How much rope will you get if you're the new head coach in Buffalo?
Yeah, it doesn't feel like it's a position where there's going to be a grace period, right? Because I would say the bare minimum is you have to at least replicate what you did this year and take it a step further. So win, make it to the AFC Championship game, I think is probably going to be the expectation. Then you see, okay, do we run into another juggernaut team?
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Chapter 3: What led to Sean McDermott's firing from the Bills?
Potentially, because who knows? Maybe we're talking next year about the Patriots being... a Super Bowl champion and on the verge of a dynasty. You never know how quickly maybe Kansas City bounces back.
But to me, you probably have to at least get to this point of the season next year if you're the Bills' first-year head coach because otherwise it feels like another lost year and a step in the wrong direction.
I wonder how many years it's been that you'd have Kansas City and New England representing the AFC in the conference championship. Because, you know, it's been Kansas City for how many years in a row? And before that, it was the Belichick years. So, it's got to be double digits. And now here New England is back in it, potentially, in that role. So... It's funny how it all works. 412-928-9370.
We've been also opining about some of the officiating in this game. And the eternal question, which will never get answered, is what is a catch in the NFL? Simple question, right? Very complicated answer. We got a lot of people on the line. Sean, let's get back to them. Let's head out to San Francisco with Matt. Home of the Super Bowl, but the Frisco 49ers won't be there.
That is correct. Good morning, guys. How's it going? Good.
What's up, Matt?
Everybody's doing well? Well... Just interesting listening to Convo as a whole. Regarding the officiating, my question has been for a while now.
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Chapter 4: How do NFL coaching decisions impact team performance?
I think Bob even commented to it. We have this technology. As it continues to get better, I don't know why we're not using it better. I know back when instant replay became a thing, go back to the Renfro TD that wasn't. That would have it could have changed the game. And I don't know why we're not using it. And that play in Denver, to me it looked like a catch.
The one that turned to an interception, which that was the drive Denver used to win the game. And by the way, it was an interesting nugget on that. That game-winning drive included 51 yards of penalties.
Which you never want to see in a game like that. I don't want the official to determine how you move down the field, but they did.
They did. But the big question on that pivotal play was, why was it rushed? I agree with McDermott on that. Why wasn't that slowed down? It was just like, okay, interception, Denver ball, go ahead. Why wasn't that stopped? It's to the point to where because so much is on the line, and I think with the enormous popularity of legalized sports betting,
I think those two have to be somewhat connected and it does make you wonder, I mean, you hear the rumors about rigged and all that, but man, these are, these are, These are jobs on the line, as you saw with McDermott.
Back to your point, though, about the officiating. And I'm only bringing this up because of the play you cited there. If that is the way that call should be adjudicated, which is to say that they thought it was an interception, it wasn't a completion. I thought it was a completion, but they thought differently. Then how do you explain what happened to Devontae Adams yesterday in that game?
because with the Rams, but they called it a catch, no intercept. They called it, right? And then furthermore, go back to the game where the Ravens and the Steelers play. Aaron Rodgers has the ball batted in the air. He catches it himself as he's going down. His knee is on the ground. They called it an interception. Then they overturned it back to a catch because his knee was on the ground.
So which is it?
To me, what we're talking about, Bob, is just inconsistency. And if the human error is driving it, which it is, And we have the technology to the point of what's the need for having human officials? I think it's going to get to that point.
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Chapter 5: What are the expectations for the next head coach of the Bills?
I'm going just off of the two this weekend. As soon as the knee hit the ground, it was called a completion possession Pittsburgh. Yes, no doubt the inconsistency is maddening, but it does seem like most people that I saw thought the difference between Cooks and Adams was one was still process of catch, one was catch completed, then becomes a runner. But it's a
I mean, it's a very significant gray area that happened so quickly that it's really, they look in many ways similar, but I think some people think there was a slight distinction and that makes all the difference apparently.
Well, next we've got the conference championship games. We've got one on KDKA next Sunday, and that'll be the AFC conference championship game. And we haven't talked really about Bo Nix. What a terrible situation for that. I mean, it went to the very second-to-last play of the game. Was it on a kneel-down? No, he ran to his left, got tackled, and he started wincing.
I saw that, and I thought, ah, he just got something happen. He stayed in the game, took the kneel-down. He did a post-game interview with Tracy Wolfson and still was never indicated. He went into the locker room, and that's when they started looking at him, and they came away. Because even Sean Payton does his interview.
He left the interview, then came back to the interview room to update people. So he was in pain, but I don't think anyone thought it was going to be surgery end of season. And so now you have Jared Stidham as their quarterback. Did you know that he was their backup before this came out? I did, only because I was looking at rosters. I would not have known off the top of my head.
So in my head, I thought it was Zach Wilson still. That was a year ago he was their backup.
That's another number one pick. Went to the Jets and got lost in the shuffleboard. Man, so many number one picks. And they bring in now Ben DiNucci goes from being on the set of CBS with Bryant McFadden to being on the Denver quarterback roster.
I saw a video of him. I don't know if it was recent or not. It seemed like it might have been recent where he was ā doing like a pickup flag. He joined like a flag football league, but he didn't let everyone know that he was a former NFL player.
It's like one of those things you see where you're duping people, you're in disguise. Almost like, what is that boss show that undercover boss that they used to have?
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Chapter 6: Why is there inconsistency in NFL officiating?
And I said early in this program, Sean, and I think you agreed, Fernando Mendoza is Will Howard. They basically have the same sort of resume, especially in the senior year going into a playoff, And Will Howard completed the mission. Mendoza still has to do that. If he does, you go from a number one pick overall to a sixth round pick. Is there that much disparity between those two?
Why all of a sudden do people who want Will Howard to get an opportunity think that everyone has been bashing and hates him?
I think most people want to see him play. Throughout the course of the year, even during the regular season, people wanted him to play.
Listen, sometimes guys are judged, fairly or not, and usually it's unfairly, just based on where they're picked.
Chapter 7: What defines a catch in the NFL?
So if you see sixth-round pick, well, that's not going to yield a starting quarterback. That happened with Brock Purdy, and I watched the guy, his first handful of starts, and I said, I don't see anything that disqualifies him from being a good starting quarterback. But everyone said, well, his magic will wear off. It's going to be a short-term thing.
He won't be an answer because he was a seventh-round pick, you just assume. So I have no idea if Howard's going to pan out or not. I wouldn't be opposed to giving him an opportunity to find out, although you're probably not going to give him a full season to start if he struggles off the bat.
But I think you could certainly give him an extended opportunity of, what, six to eight games next year if they don't bring in a very legitimate number one, which seems doubtful. If they bring in kind of these, you know, cast-off type players, I would not be opposed to seeing him. But I think the important thing is He needs to get preseason reps. He needs to get training camp reps.
And the coaches there will be able to much better evaluate him than anything we've seen this year where you probably have learned almost nothing about him.
It's an open book right now. The new guy's going to come in and want to see what they got. One more before we go, and I think we have a Penguins call on the line. Do we not? Yes, we do. We will go out to McMurray with Doug. Doug, what's up, man?
Hey, guys. How you doing? Good. Thank you. Thanks for taking my call. Sorry to switch it from football to hockey. No, I like it. We were talking about that earlier. I love hockey talk. We should do more of it. Yeah, hopefully you guys didn't touch on what I'm going to talk about. But I wanted to talk about the Penguins overtime woes. I've become a big hockey fan.
I watch a lot of hockey, not just the Penguins games. So, you know, I'll watch three, four games, you know, quite frequently. And I've noticed a couple of things. Obviously, Dan Muse knows a lot more than I know, but. With the new three-on-three overtime, possession seems to be so important. And I've noticed sometimes when the Penguins are on the power play, we say, why are they passing so much?
But in overtime, it's like the opposite. The Penguins aren't passing enough. They're rushing it. They're not slowing it down. They should cycle it back to the neutral zone, get everyone set up, get some forwards on to score a goal. And then also with the shootout, and I'll hang up and listen for your guys' opinion. What do you guys think about ā it's probably unorthodox, but ā
taking Shelofs out and putting Skinner in for shootouts only. Thanks. I'll hang up.
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Chapter 8: How does officiating affect game outcomes in the NFL?
I haven't checked enough of social media to know. There's always somebody out there doing something that shouldn't be done.
Can we give it to Bechtel today for not showing up but then coming in later tonight? Yeah. Is that fair? I think so.
He didn't want to work with you apparently. He didn't want to work with me. I take that as a personal slap. But I'm glad you're here today, Sean. You've made it easy on me, and I appreciate that. 412-928-9370, that's the number to call. It is now 1.30 in the afternoon. Make the smart call. Buell Insurance at 724-443-5610.
Back with more right here on the Pomp and Joe Show on a beautiful but wintry Monday in Pittsburgh.