Week 14 The NFL Show

And it will be time for these two teams to settle

it.

Elway, he's going to fire it, they have lost the ball at the near

side.

Looking downfield, going deep.

A one-man wrecking crew!

How did he do that?

Unstoppable!

Unstoppable!

Hello, welcome to the NFL Show, and we have got our tree up.

The boys have been very excited about

decorating because it gives us all a chance

to use a festive prop for

a tenuous sports analogy.

So, gentlemen, who will be top of the

tree at Christmas?

Who is your number one seed?

My boys, my favourite team.

What, really?

Up here.

Jason?

Yes, I'm going to go with the NFC.

Dallas will keep it rolling.

Do you want a box?

Anybody?

Come on.

Cleveland are up there.

It is the season of goodwill!

VOICEOVER It is the season of giving.

At present, London has three games.

The present is one more, four games in London in 2017.

More sleekness, Ravens and Jaguars.

More sparkle, Saints and Dolphins.

More visitors from the North Pole, Vikings and Rams.

More Tinseltown, Rams and Cardinals.

More of this at Wembley and Twickenham, a gift,

season's greetings from the NFL.

Well, there are just three weeks left in this yeur's regular-season

and that means that teams only have three chances to make the playoffs.

There are so many permutations as to what may happen that I requested

that Professor Stephen Hawking and Carol Vorderman be on the sofa

this week but the producers said, no, we can't do

that because they are unavailable.

So instead I am lumbered with these, our ex-pros,

Osi Umenyiora and Jason Bell.

On tonight's show we will be bringing you

highlights of Thursday's game between the LA Rams and the Seattle

Seahawks, we will be talking the bleakness of midwinter with bad

blood and battered bodies, we'll be looking ahead to this weekend's

fixtures and also looking back at what last week's results mean to

everybody's playoff hopes.

And to get us under way, let's look at a

game that took place on Monday night.

Tom Brady, the winningest

quarterback in NFL history, and his team,

the New England Patriots, the

successfullest team in recent Super Bowl history, took

on the Baltimore Ravens, who are the defensiest,

who have the best defense, come on, I've got to stop it at some point,

they've got the best defense in the competition.

Anyhow, the Patriots are sitting comfortably on top of

their division with some room for error.

However, the Ravens are in a slugfest with the Pittsburgh

Steelers for top spot of their division and coming second could

easily mean sitting out the playoffs in January.

The Ravens start from their own 1-yard line.

Trouble and it will be a safety.

Malcolm Brown stopped the run By Kenneth Dixon.

Brady on 3rd down and 20.

Tom steps up, zings one over the head of

Elliman.

Jimmy Smith in coverage and Brady very upset.

35 straight field goals.

And it's blocked!

By Shea McClellan.

McClellan goes over the top of Morgan Cox.

Gets a clean block.

What a play by McClellan.

Third and goal New England.

LeGarrette Blount head down, charging into the

end zone for a New England touchdown.

Brady and a touchdown.

Malcolm Mitchell!

New England crowded the line and rushed only

three.

Flacco, deep ball and a double coverage and it is

intercepted off Mike Wallace, and into the arms

of Devin McCourty, who

has a lot of running room as he brings it back.

McCourty across midfield, still on his feet,

inside the 40 and bang down at the 37-yard line.

Big 3rd down and goal from the two.

Still nobody near Brady.

Now he's hit and the ball is intercepted and run out

of the end zone by Eric Weddle. McClellan started as if he was going

to try it again and backed away.

And Tucker back to where he usually is

between the uprights.

Brady to the end zone in traffic and the battle for

the ball, won by Bennett.

Touchdown, New England.

It is kicked low, end over end.

Jones!

That might have hit his foot!

He's had one catastrophe after another.

The Ravens are running, whose ball is it?

Baltimore's ball.

Flacco.

Into the end zone, caught this time by Waller for a

Baltimore touchdown.

Matthew Slater back with the kick-off now for New

England.

And the ball is out and the Ravens have it, another mistake by

New England from Slater.

There is an open man in the flat, it's

Kenneth Dixon with a Baltimore touchdown.

The fourth quarter.

Flacco in trouble.

Flacco is sacked, at the 20-yard line.

Tom Brady, man running open, Chris Hogan is off to

the races!

Touchdown, New England.

No flags.

37-yard field goal.

And it's just inside the left upright, another one that started

hooking at the beginning and sliced back just enough.

They nearly squandered a 20 point lead in the

second half, and it would have been just the second time in the history

of the franchise if they'd done that.

They will take another step towards what will be

inevitably, their eighth consecutive AFC East

inevitably, their eighth consecutive AFC East

title.

And don't forget you can catch more highlights of Week 14

on our highlights show, NFL this week and that is on the iPlayer

now.

I suppose when looking at the Patriots there

are two ways to look at it.

One, they made some errors yet still seem

calm and delivered in the

end, or the errors were ridiculous and could cost them if they do that

again as they go down the home stretch.

Which way do you look at it?

Well, these are errors that are uncharacteristic of the New

England Patriots.

They never make mistakes like this.

This is the Bill Belichick team that prides itself on

winning games error- free.

So to see them making mistakes like this and

still overcoming that and being able to win doesn't bode well for

the rest of the NFL.

That slippery slope starts with the Brady

interception before we even get on to the special teams making

a right Horlicks of it.

Yet, the thing that they do well, the thing that makes

them so dangerous, they can be in situations where things don't

work out well but as a team, they figure it

out and rally.

What did you make of the special teams errors?

I'm a special teams guy!

That's why I'm asking!

That's why I'm not asking him!

Smashing quarterbacks I go to him, special

teams, I come to you!

One thing about special teams errors, it's the

quickest way to lose a game because of the yardage that

happens in those places, it's so significant.

And they are a team that always has a

special team leadership role kind of guy.

In Slater.

And they have always been that way so they usually don't

do things like that and that's something they've got to get control

of.

I will say this about special teams mistakes, like, as a defense,

say you've just come off the field and the special teams makes a

mistake, there is nothing more deflating than that.

It takes the air completely out of the defensemen.

So big up to the special teams guys.

Thanks, man.

We work together well!

Yes we do.

Did you deliberately do deflating and taking the air out of

things when we are talking about the Patriots!

That's kind of one of those things...

Since Deflategate it's just like a Freudian slip!

Isn't that what they call it?

Yes, that's what they call it.

You know what you're doing.

Let's take a look at some of the other significant

results from Week 14.

Some interesting ones.

The Thursday night game between Kansas City and Oakland

really affected things in the AFC with Kansas City Chiefs now going

above the Oakland Raiders in that division.

Pittsburgh Steelers, who are in this battle with the Ravens,

they beat Buffalo, defeat for Denver, Washington managing

to hold off Philadelphia, Miami getting back

on the winning track as well, Houston winning

a big divisional match

against the Indianapolis Colts, Detroit given a real fight by the

Chicago Bears but they came through it, despite Matthew Stafford's

injury.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Saints, Atlanta Falcons thrashed

the LA Rams, which means that the Rams fired their head

coach, Jeff Fisher, Seattle lost on the road

again in a very snowy location against Green Bay and the game that

I think these two will want to talk about in

a moment, the New York Giants defense performing against the

Dallas Cowboys, meaning that the Dallas Cowboys's winning streak

comes to an end.

We will talk about some of those games and in relation

to the playoff picture, don't forget when it

comes to the playoffs, all

four divisional winners go through and the two wild Cards

are the two teams with the best records

elsewhere, they don't have to be in second place in their division.

So at the moment in the NFC Dallas and

Detroit are the top two divisional winners,

Seattle and Atlanta win the

other two divisions and Tampa Bay and the New York Giants have the

best record among all the other teams.

When you see it like that with the New York Giants as fifth

seeds as it stands, it shows what an important win that was.

It was huge.

Because if they do get in the playoffs,

who will they face again?

The Dallas Cowboys.

And that's where the magic happens.

Crucial, crucial victory for the New York Giants.

They have distanced themselves from pretty much the rest

of the people in the hunt for that wild card

position, I'm so excited for the New York Giants.

Important that they have distanced themselves from a

divisional rival as well? In Washington?

You can see on the graphic, Washington the next best

team in the hunt.

You always want to distance yourself from your

divisional rivals, you don't want to play them again.

Particularly when the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins

meet in Week 17.

So if they can have a two game gap they will be happy

with that?

You know who is excited about Washington?

Everyone else in that conference, because nobody wants

to see the Washington Redskins in the playoff,

that offense is dynamic and they can beat anybody.

We have said on the show a fair bit over the

season that teams can turn things around quickly in the NFL.

Tampa Bay are on a decent winning streak, five

games, Green Bay, all of a sudden, on a winning streak of three games,

Detroit, five-game winning streak although we have praised them.

Green Bay and Tampa have turned things

around in the last month.

It's all about being a second-half team,

second half of the season.

Figuring out who you are, getting on a roll

and sustaining that.

It also shows the importance of a franchise

quarterback.

Green Bay have Aaron Rodgers and Tampa Bay they have

the young Jameis Winston.

Two excellent quarterbacks.

You can never count out a team that has those kind of

guys at the quarterback position.

Is Matthew Stafford a franchise quarterback?

For sure.

We're talking MVP Canada.

He's having that kind of year.

Took him eight years to figure it out but he's finally put

everything together this year!

When you look at the records with Detroit

a number two seed in the NFC obviously there are games still to

go and Detroit have to go to the Giants, to Dallas,

and then they have Green Bay in week 17.

So they have a difficult final three games,

Detroit.

But because Seattle are poor on the road at the moment,

Detroit have now gone above Seattle.

And that's amazing, Seattle, so effective at home and cannot pull

anything off on the road.

That's not good, going into the playoffs.

The thing for Seattle, to give everyone

the fixtures here, Seattle have LA and Arizona at home, where they are

so strong, their final game on the road is at

San Francisco, where on

current evidence they could put me in there and they might not suffer

so they've got a fairly easy run.

But I am concerned about the Seattle Seahawks,

not only did they lose to

the Green Bay Packers, they got obliterated.

And a good football team will never get beaten that bad.

They will lose but not by that many points

so there's no telling what

you will get out of the Seattle Seahawks.

Let's take a look at the AFC and the playoff picture, two weeks

ago, Oakland were top two, and because of that defeat to Kansas

City, Kansas City now one of the top two seeds

and Oakland would have to

make do with a wild card which would take them to Houston.

Which even in this situation, if you are a wild

card in the AFC, as long as you get the winners in the Houston division

you will be very happy.

And if you are Oakland, you want to play on the

road because that is where you are good!

So, yeah.

Anybody in that conference, you want to take.

This is where there has been some talk

about re-seeding in the NFL because there is no way a team

like Houston or Indianapolis should have a higher

seed than a team like the Oakland Raiders or Denver simply because

they are the winners.

Denver in a little bit of trouble, would you say?

Both form wise and, you know, the same record as Miami.

So depending on how that run in goes, Miami have got the Jets

and Buffalo and New England.

So three divisional games.

But they might fancy their chances in two of those.

Yes, it's surprising, Denver might not be in their at the end.

A Super Bowl team not making it.

They have something called the Super Bowl hangover.

And this is what happens to a lot of teams, they'll go

through Super Bowl one year, they'll win and the next year

they won't even make the play-offs.

It happens in the NFL all the time.

So explain what happens the following season to you,

mentally, after you have won the Super Bowl?

Yeah because, you know, I've done this twice, so I can tell you!

Go ahead!

OK, first of all, you play deeper.

Like a lot of teams, their season ends in January,

whereas the Super Bowl champion season ends in February.

So you'll have had like a month of extra football that nobody else has.

So you're a little bit more banged up, you get a little

bit less time to rest.

And then you go in on that high, feeling, oh, we've won,

we beat everybody, we defeated them.

And in our case, even though we won the Super Bowl,

I don't think that necessarily we were that talented a football team,

we were just clearly better than everybody.

We couldn't afford to take those relaxations, and we did,

and it ended up costing us.

Come on, you're on my side now.

Read that because this is what we are doing next.

Go on.

Two-time champ.

That's how week 14 looked from up here.

Let's see how it sounded on the field.

Good man.

Can't see it well.

We've got on our fancy clothes but guess what,

that don't mean nothing, man.

We've got to win this game today, by any means!

Are you ready?

Na, uh-uh.

Come on, come on, come on.

Come on!

Best of luck, man.

I appreciate it.

I love you.

How is the family?

Are they good?

We've got another one on the way, did you know that?

No, I didn't, congrats.

Another boy?

You are doing well.

Great job, hanging in there.

They can't say we're not a good team any more.

That's five in a row!

Undefeated in the division.

And we've got to get after it next week.

Now, that's how you do it in December!

Tough, gritty, hard-nosed football, in the elements.

Hey, I might get a little emotional.

I'm really proud.

I'm really proud as the coach of this football team,

I'm really proud of you guys.

It's cold, it's wet,

there's wounded men everywhere fighting like their lives

depended on it.

It may seem like an episode of Game of Thrones, but in fact it's

the NFL in December.

For example, let's talk about the quarterbacks.

Ryan Tannehill of the Dolphins suffering a potentially

season-ending ACL injury.

Aaron Rodgers of the Packers hobbled to victory with

a hamstring and calf injury.

We've got a mangled finger each for Derek Carr

of the Oakland Raiders and Matthew Stafford

of the Detroit Lions.

You're 13 games in, it's cold, you're carrying injuries.

At this stage of the season, is it horrible to play?

Absolutely.

And I say that because everybody that's playing football gets

injured at this point.

Not just the quarterbacks, not just the big name guys.

Every single person that's playing football is operating

at about 70-80% right now.

I agree.

It's the main thing that the real veterans of the league no how

to take care of themselves, because this is when it gets

interesting and you've got to take care of your body.

You are more susceptible to injuries at this stage?

Yes, that's why you've got to learn kind of how you are over the years

and take care of things that nag you.

And also, we've spoken before, actually, about how different teams

might have players who they bring in for the cold weather

and the wet weather, who are more adept at playing

in those conditions than others.

Quarterbacks never get that opportunity though, of course.

Yeah, you've got to ride with your one quarterback the whole season!

Let's take a look at a couple of the quarterback injuries.

And it is the Matthew Stafford one.

And the Derek Carr one.

Both have suffered dislocated fingers.

This was Matthew Stafford against the Bears.

The worst thing about the dislocation is the camera seemed

to go right in and see the treatment on the finger.

He then wore a glove, that was the middle finger

on his throwing hand.

When Derek Carr suffered his dislocated finger, for the Raiders,

that was on his little finger on his throwing arm with this

sort of fumbled snap against the Carolina Panthers.

I can't look at it!

When he went and got it sorted, obviously he has a glove on as well.

So what I want to know is, for the quarterbacks,

which finger affects them the most?

How do they throw the ball, really?

So I'm going to start off and say it's your pinky finger.

This is why Derek Carr is struggling.

Because you see how you hold the ball here.

My middle finger is not in the laces.

Right.

So you really are getting that last grip out of your pinky finger.

That really affect your throwing motion.

And as you see, the middle finger, these two fingers

are connected to the bone.

So you've kind of got a little more power and these are two floaters,

they're called, they're not really connected to the bone.

So when you hurt that, you really need that

grip to throw correctly.

So the middle finger is more for what?

It's kind of just there.

I mean, you need your thumb and your index finger,

that's where the power is coming from.

But the last two are giving you the grip you need.

So that will give you the control or the spin, and that's why he might

struggle with the dislocation of the little finger.

Yes, because when you throw, and you release the ball,

you're throwing down.

And those are the last two to leave.

But you see like, when the injury happened, you see how they didn't

roll on the floor and act like the end of the earth is coming.

You know how the soccer players...

Never mind, never mind!

Never mind, go ahead, I'm sorry!

I'm sorry.

They may do that, you may have a point!

The LA Rams are not making the playoffs, that's official.

Head coach Jeff Fisher has been sacked and Jarad Goff,

the highest-rated quarterback to come out of college last year,

has yet to win a game and he looked like a lost little billy goat last

week against the Atlanta Falcons.

For the Seahawks, a home game against the ramshackle Rams must

have looked like the perfect play off confidence booster.

But then again, it's always a good idea to be wary of anything that has

horns and nothing to lose.

From the 41 yard line, good play action going.

Deep downfield and open and dropping it at the 13 yard

line is Michael Thomas.

Three first downs on his journey and a third down and one.

Goff.

Nice protection.

An open man, can't hit him.

Brian Quick wide open in the end zone.

On a first and goal now.

And Wilson, rolling against the grain, throws.

Caught, and into the end zone goes Luke Wilson for the touchdown.

And Hekker's going to fake it and it's incomplete.

And Hauschka sends that one right down the middle.

And the Rams are able to get on the board.

From the 14 yard line.

Look out!

Loses the ball and is able to recover it at the 8

yard line, Cliff Avril.

Graham comes into the slot.

Play action again.

They go to Graham.

Breaking tackles!

To the 14 yard line.

Uh-oh!

Fade, and wide open!

Doug Baldwin for the touchdown.

He beats Troy Hill.

Oh, boy, what a move!

3rd and 11th.

Line does its job.

Going deep down field, getting free.

Lockett.

Touchdown!

Oh, man!

He gets slaughtered!

Jason Goff away, flag gets thrown and Goff gets slain down the bounds

of the three by Richard Sherman.

Holding.

So Goff will get checked for a possible concussion.

There's a medical observer up in the press box and of course this

was something that was put in in recent times, about being able

to call down and say, get this guy out of the game,

we've got to check him out.

I agree with the call.

Uh-oh, here we go!

Wide open!

And it's Jon Ryan and the Red Sea parted and he almost lost the ball!

And he does lose it and he goes down and he might be hurt as well.

9, 4 and 1.

The Rams will go to 4 and 10.

John Fassel gets a couple more games as the interim head coach.

Pete Carroll has picked up another NFC West title.

And the Seahawks win it by a score of 24-3.

There's some things coming together here and we have a lot

of improvement yet to make here.

And fortunately we have a couple more games before play-off time

and we can see if we can continue to just clean things up.

Yeah, it's a big deal to be NFC West champs.

It's not easy to do.

It's something that, you know, there's a lot of physical teams,

a lot of tough, tough talent out there obviously, every time

you get to the play-offs.

There's people that have never been to the play-offs and I've got

to be grateful for that.

It's something that really matters and something that we cherish.

To be able to win enough and to be able to do what we're doing.

So it's a great, great thing and we're just

going to continue to get better.

Let's look at some of the other fixtures in week 14 coming our way.

We mentioned the Packers and the Steelers.

Both on a decent run.

They have the Bears and the Bengals respectively.

The Raiders after the defeat against the Kansas City Chiefs have

another divisional game against the San Diego Chargers.

The Chiefs themselves have the Tennessee Titans.

Not a divisional game, but the Titans beat the Broncos also

in the Chiefs' division last week.

So they'll be looking for a double over AFC West teams.

And then the bottom three, and they're the ones

we're going to focus on.

Starting with the Lions at the Giants.

And I suppose the question is again, can the Giants' defence do

to Detroit what they did to Dallas?

I think they can.

I thought you might do!

I think Detroit is really one to mention.

They are throwing team and I think the Giants can get after them

and they can cover them in the back end.

Maybe they might not be able to get the pressure

that they are accustomed to without Jason Pierre-Paul.

But they have a replacement who is playing well in Romeo Okwara.

They have the defensive backs that are going to be able

to neutralise the Detroit Lions offensive wide receiver.

Who are pretty good football players.

So I think the Giants can actually win this football game.

How much could the weather be a factor for the

Patriots at the Broncos?

So with New England going to Denver?

I mean, the Patriots are used to bad weather.

It doesn't matter.

You could put them guys in anything.

They can play through it.

That's their advantage.

It is, but playing in Denver's really difficult

because of the altitude.

And it's really difficult to breathe there.

So that might play to the Denver Broncos' advantage,

but as far as the weather and the rain and snow, not at all.

OK.

And this also used to be, every time we had this

the last couple of years, it always used to be

about Manning and Brady.

Obviously it's not that at all.

Would you bat the Patriots here?

I would.

The Pats are on a roll.

They are doing what they need to do.

And I just feel like they figure it out this time of year.

They always do.

What's Denver's problem at the moment?

Well, they're not able to stop the run, which is a big issue.

Something they've been able to do for the past couple of years.

They can rush the passer, they have DeMarcus Ware,

they have Von Miller.

And their quarterback is just not consistent enough for them

to be able to win games.

And then the other one I want to pick up on,

Buccaneers at the Cowboys.

I like what the Bucs are doing right now.

I mean, that defence is playing lights out right now

in the second half of the season.

They're creating more turnovers than anybody.

They could win this game.

Restricted Drew Brees last weekend, and not many, even though the Saints

have been a bit up and down this season, not many

teams have done that.

No, and I will tell you this, and I said it here first.

If Dak Prescott plays the way he played against the Dallas Cowboys,

we're going to see Tony Romo as the starting quarterback

for the Dallas Cowboys for the next game.

Mark my words.

He might be onto something!

I don't want him to be onto something!

It kind of does my head in after a while when he's right!

And I get a text from him on a Sunday evening

or a Monday morning, look, I was right again.

Let's take a look, shall we, at some of the other

plays during the week, both good and bad.

Here are the highs and lows.

Players obviously have to take account of the weather in December,

but it didn't really phase Odell Beckham Junior.

What is that!

Or Big Ben and Antonio Brown.

Man, that's painful, in the snow.

They're loving it, though.

Oh!

A lot easier in sunny Florida.

This is Stefon Diggs in Jacksonville.

Lighting them up!

Now, watch this catch from the Jets.

I think the 49ers guy thinks he's got this.

He's all the way to the end zone, look at him!

He's calling his mum, his cousins!

Another bad celebration there, some really strange

celebrations this week.

Vic Beazley then into Emmanuel Sanders.

Davante Adams, adding insult to injury.

Oh, he ran over his boy!

Quarterbacks can never do it, can they, really?

Matthew Stafford there.

Mike Jay!

Jonathan Stewart managed to stay in play and avoid the tackle

by balancing on his opponent's foot.

Oh, man, how did he know he wasn't down?

He got instincts, man!

And this shows rapid feet from Tyreek Hill,

an amazing pump return for Kansas City Chiefs

against the Oakland Raiders.

He's got high school track speed!

When you just blow everybody out!

And we'll watch Nelson now for the Cardinals.

He goes even faster.

Gosh, some of these guys are just ridiculous.

That's probably the most impressive play of the week.

That isn't!

And that from Ryan Tannehill definitely isn't.

They're saying that's the worst throw ever in the NFL!

That's bad.

In NFL history.

He can't blame that on his fingers!

No, he can't! You can join us again this Tuesday

at 11:15 for NFL This Week, where we bring you all the best

of the action from week 15.

But from Osi - the know-it-all - Jason and myself, it's good night.

Hot summer day, you know?

Still white stuff on the ground.

It is not frozen across the land, there are different shades of heat

and light and style, from state to state,

from team to team.

But where winter comes and when winter comes,

steam fills the air.

When winter comes, senses are anything but numbed.

In the cold air is heat and there are shocks.

When winter comes.

I quit my job for this!

Only in the NFL.

Damn, I'm handsome!

It's Christmas, man.

Sorry, sorry.