The Jesse Blake Sports Report with Jesse Blake. Welcome to the Jesse Blake Sports Report. Whether this is your first time here or your last time here or somewhere in between, I appreciate that you were here today so that we can discuss Super Wild Card Weekend coming up in the NFL. I'm going to run down every game in chronological order of when they're going to be played this coming weekend. I'm just going to talk a little about each one and preview each one in each matchup. But first, before we get to that, I just want to... I just finished I'm watching Clippers, Lakers because it was on after Dolphins bills. I just want to get out one thought. Norm Powell took the final shot in the game. The Clippers were down by three to the Lakers with four seconds left on the clock. They had to inbound the ball and then run all the way down the court and try and get a three-point shot. First thing on that, before I get to Norm Powell shooting that shot, first thing on that, the Lakers could have just fouled them. Then if my memory serves me correctly, you can only make two points from the free throw line, so why not foul them and them into that trouble the four seconds left and make them make decisions at the free throw line.

Why don't you just do that, Lakers? What the hell are you doing? But they ended up winning the game because they inbounded the ball to Norm Powell. On a team with Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and James Harden, who were all on the court, and Westbrook was on the bench. Why is Norm Powell taking the final shot? I get there's great defense on the inbounding, but curious decision there to have that guy running down the court and making the shot, which he almost did. To his credit, it almost went down, but it didn't. I just got questions. Clippers, though, playing really well the last four weeks of the season. They've been on a tear, but they couldn't pull this one out of the Lakers. But that's not why we're here today. We are here today to talk about the NFL and the fantastic matchup that the scriptwriters at the NFL have set up for this coming weekend. I love these games. They are fantastic matchups. We're starting with on Saturday at 4:30 PM Eastern, the Cleveland Browns head over to the division-winning Houston Texans. Give me a second on C. J. Stroud. Oh, baby. The rookie had his coming out party on Saturday.

The throws he's able to make as a rookie are something I don't remember the last rookie we had that was this good. What we're seeing of C. J. Stroud is projecting to see what he's going to be after he has a couple of years in the league. This is a dude who's going to be one of the best QBs in the entire league within the next handful of years. We're almost at C. J. Stroud in the conversation with the top five QBs in the league. I don't know. I'd have to map it out, but he's there. What he did against the Colts, the throws he's able to make under pressure, are not things you see out of a rookie. Stroud is it. He is the guy. And with all that said, I can't take the rookie QB against the Cleveland Browns defense in his first ever playoff game. What he played on this past Saturday against the Colts It was a playoff game. It was win and you get in. So him doing that, I think that's the playoff game for Stroud. I'm buying into the Stroud hype for years to come. He's the boy.

But Saturday, Cleveland, they're minus two and a half favorites. I'm taking Cleveland straight up on the money line. I would take the Browns because their defense has been there all year. You lose your starting quarterback, you lose your starting running back. All year long, they're dealing with all of these injuries, and what do they do? They bring in Joe Flacko, and they win ball games. Cleveland's got the team right now that's clicking. I don't see how the Texans go in there, or the Texans accept them to their house. The Texans at home can take on the Cleveland Browns and defeat them. There's too much there. It's too much to put on a rookie in game number one. I'm going to take the Browns in that one. But it's going to be close. It's going to be close Other than people think. That's why you got to take the money line. I don't like that minus two and a half. All right, the Saturday night game is what I think is my favorite game on the entire schedule this coming weekend because it's the Dolphins at the Chiefs. The Dolphins have been They've not been great.

They haven't been great against any team above 500 or any playoff team. That's for sure. That's when they haven't been great. They haven't been able to beat anybody good. It's been fascinating to watch because this offense is so good, but their defense can't stop anything. Their offense can't really get it going either against really good teams. We saw them just lose the division to the Bills. They had a 9-3 record, and the Bills were 6-6. Week 12 of the season, you got everything wrapped up. And what did they do? They lost the division. And it's because every time they faced a decent offense and defense, they couldn't win the game. But the Chiefs, on the other hand, the Chiefs remind me so much right now of the Patriots in Tom Brady's last season, where the Patriots lost to the Tennessee Titans in the wild card round. If you remember that last season, the Patriots were going in that wild card game and they're facing the Titans. Everyone's like, You know what? It's Tom braided. It's the playoffs. They're going to do it. He's not going to just lose to the Titans. That's ridiculous. Look at all he's done.

He's got six Super Bowl at the time. He had six Super Bowl in New England. And what happened? The Titans just ran the ball on them, and they won that game, and that was Tom Brady's last game in New England. But the thing I'm getting at is when they were going in, it was all about the reputation. It wasn't about how they were playing at the moment, because at the moment, the Patriots were not playing well. But everybody said, The name on the back of the jersey and what we've seen the front of the jersey do over the last two decades is going to be enough to get them past the Titans. And that's what it's looking like with the Chiefs. With the Chiefs right now, it's all about what the Chiefs have done in previous seasons. And it's not about how the Chiefs have played so far this season, because if you take away the names, if you take away Patrick Mahomes and all the Super Bowl he's won, if you take away Travis, Kelsey, and the seasons he's had in past years, if you just look at the Chiefs as who they are constructed right now and how they are playing, They are not playing as a very good football team.

But you say, They're the Kansas City Chiefs. They will get it together because now is when the games matter, so they're going to get it done. But on the other side of the ball, you have one of the most explosive offenses that can take advantage of bad teams. But the Chiefs aren't necessarily a bad team because their defense has been picking up some of the slack where the offense hasn't been able to get it together. So I look at this game and I say, I got to take away the bias of them being the Kansas City Chiefs. You got to take away the bias of, They're coming off the Super Bowl. It's Patrick Mahomes. It's Travis Kelsey. You got to take that away. When you're trying to look at it unbiasedly, you say, The defense, when you see Miami come up against any defense that's semi-decent, they're not really to get it done. That's the main reason I'm going to side with the Chiefs on this one. I'm going to take a look at the spread here. What's the spread? What's the spread? Plus three and a half for the Dolphins, which makes sense. They are the road team.

The Chiefs are the Chiefs. They're going to be a lot of public money on the Chiefs. I'm going to side with the favorite here. I think I got Yeah, I'm on the favorite right now for everybody. No real upset pics. I don't know. Is that... All the favorites are going to win. In the next game, I think I'm definitely going to... I'm going to go with the Chiefs. I'm going to go with the Chiefs on this one right now. I might come back to switch it. I'm not sure. Let's move over to Sunday in the morning. We just saw the Buffalo Bills take care of business against the Miami Dolphins, the Clincher Division, to get this home game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Hey, if everybody wants to know something, I'm going to tell you a secret right now. The Pittsburgh Steelers aren't good. They're not good. Mason Rudolf is decent at best, but he's not good. George Pickens and Deontay Johnson have been so up and down all season. I know there's some injuries in there this year for on the wide receiver core, but their offense is their offense, and it's not a very good offense, especially now on the defensive side.

They were out without T. J. Watt now for this playoff game, it's not... The Bills are the hottest team in the National Football League except for the 49ers. This game isn't something I'm going to spend a lot of time on because I think this is an easy victory for the Bills. Nothing is easy because Josh Allen is going to find a way to throw an interception because that's his favorite thing to do. But the spread right now is plus nine and a half points for the Stealers, minus nine and a half for the Bills. That's what you're getting on the spread. It's the biggest spread so far or this playoff, this upcoming weekend. I don't think this is going to be close. I don't think the Stealers are good. I think one extra team had to find its way to the playoff because there's seven playoff teams, and the Steelers, to me, are just... They're not it. They are not it. There's a reason they're the seventh playoff seating the AFC. I'm going to write that. I'm just going to... It's Bill's win. Bill's win in a route is what I'm going to say. I'm going to take the minus nine and a half.

I think that is my one bold prediction for this game. I'm taking the minus nine and for the Buffalo Bills. Packers, Cowboys. The packers are a bit of frauds, right? The packers, they had that little run in the middle of the season where you're like, Oh, packers, they could do something here. I want to bring up their schedule real quick. But so I can go back and just see those games they played there. Yeah, it was the little run where the packers went. They beat the Chargers, then they beat the lions, then they beat the chiefs. Those three games, you're like, Oh, wow. Packers momentum, they're going to do it here. Then they go and they lose a stinker to the Giants. Close game, but you should beat the Giants. They lose a bad one to the Bucaneers who Baker may really struggled against Carolina, who has a decent defense, but that's a game, one of those two games you should have had. They barely beat the affirmention Panthers. They barely beat them. They win that game by three points, and then they end up beating the Viking who's got no one. Then they took care of business against the bears who look strong.

But there's not enough there for me to believe that the packers can beat the Cowboys because the cowboys finally look like they're for real. Here we go, Dak. Dak's making me a believer right now. I've never been the biggest Dak supporter because whenever he has to show up in primetime, it's not Dak time. But this year, what we've seen from him at the quarterback position, the big games, I've been impressed when I've watched Dack this season. It's more of what we've seen in the past, but he seems to be more consistent in the entire Cowboys' offense, whether you're ranking them the second best offense behind the 49ers are somewhere in the top three. They have enough pieces there to compete with anybody in the NFC, and the packers aren't it. It's Cowboys all day. The spread is minus seven and a half, which is crazy. I hate big spreads because I feel like any NFL team on any given day can make a game close. They might not be able to win, but they can make a game close. I'd stay away from the spread on this one. I don't like big spreads. Cowboys, I'm taking them on the money line there.

I don't even think I mentioned this. The Cowboys-Packers game is the 4:30 Eastern game on Sunday. Let's move on to the Sunday Night game. Sunday night is where we get into Upset City. This is where I'm taking the underdog. I love the Detroit Lions and everything they've done. Dan Campbell, praise him for being the most ballsy coach there is out there in the entire universe. But the Rams don't get enough respect for what they are. The Rams are not the Super Bowl team that won the Super Bowl a couple of years ago, but they still have the remnants of a very good football team, and nobody wants to look at them that way because they sold the franchise for that Super Bowl, and they're supposed to have a whole bunch of down years now coming up with no draft picks, and they have such a cap crunch, too. But the Rams can hang. Just to me, having Matt Stafford go in there in Detroit and defeat the Lions in their first playoff game since the sun rose for the first time on planet Earth, It's just so classic the way this thing's going to end for the lines this season.

I don't know how that narrative doesn't come true unless we're in this new weird era where the lions aren't the lions. I could sit here next week and the lions did it. The lions beat the rams and they've exercised all demons and they're no longer the Detroit lions and all that stuff. But if I'm going to bet a narrative here. If I'm going to take any underdog for this wild card weekend, the best underdog to ride with right now is the Rams who didn't have the best season, but when they are firing in all cylinders, they are still a really good football team. When you have somebody like Puka step up as a rookie out of nowhere, it's not entirely because because of his talent. It's also because of the system that he is within. The offensive system that Sean McVay and the Rams have created, where they've created out of nothing Kyren Williams, they've created out of nothing Puka Nakuwa, they've had Cooper Cooper Cupp, perform like Cooper Cupp consistently no matter what's happening, and Matt Stafford is able to chuck the ball all over the field. This is an offense that's going to do some damage and surprise some people, I think, in this game.

Underdog pick of the week. Rams, take the plus three. I think it's a really good value. I'm taking the Rams to upset the lions, and the lions continue to be the lions, even though they look on the verge of overcoming that. But the first time in, First time in, it's got to be you're going to learn your lesson by your former QB who ended up winning a Super Bowl, and that's how I think it's going to play out. But next week, I could sit here, I could be entirely raw. I could sit here, I could be entirely The NFL has decided to do Monday night playoff games for the last, what was this, three years running, they've had these Monday night games. This year, it's the final game of the Wild Card Weekend. The Eagles, who are the shakiest team I don't know what is going on with the Eagles, but the Bucks don't look the best to me. I think the Eagles find a way to get through the Bucks. Can you believe that the Eagles are going on the road for a playoff game? Seeing how the Eagles played at the very beginning of the season, and their hot start, and they're in competition with the 49ers for the number one overall seed in the NFC, I can't believe we've reached this point of wild card weekend where the Eagles are the fifth seed going to Tampa to play their first playoff game.

That's crazy. They're minus two and a half on the spread. They are the favorites going into the game. The Bucks are home. I don't think the Bucks have enough to hang. I'm not giving the Bucks enough credit. The spread's so close. It's not going to be a route like I think the Bill Steeler's game is because of how much the Eagles have struggled. But this is where I'm like, your reputation is there. There's a lot of injuries, too, that the Eagles are dealing with. I'm going to spend a lot of time on the Eagle side of the ball than the Bucks side of the ball because I think the are a fairly simple team that is going to try. They're going to be in this game, but I don't think they have enough to keep the Eagles at bay. If they can If the offense is working not how it was working today against the Carolina Panthers, it will be able to put up some points. But I think the Eagles offense is going to be able to run on the Bucs defense. I think Jalen Hertz, He's not going to be 100% healthy, but he'll be there.

He'll be able to perform. I think he takes another step to where he's been playing last few weeks. I don't envision a world where the Eagles lose in the first round this year. That's not a world I don't think we're going to live in. That's it. That's it for the games. That's six games there. Quick look at them. Just my thought dump on the six wild card games this upcoming weekend. It's going to be a good weekend of football. A little bit of news for me, you're going to find this show no longer on the Sdpn YouTube channel. You're going to find this podcast on its own unique YouTube channel now. It's no longer going to be on the Sdpn YouTube channel. It's going to break out into its own YouTube channel. You'll find the link in the description of this YouTube video right now. And so go hit subscribe there. And starting this week, you're going to get a whole bunch of more extra short form content from me on that YouTube channel, plus this podcast coming to you two times a week still on audio form, but on the YouTube channel. I'll probably upload some of those videos to the audio if you're listening to the audio feed on Apple or Spotify or Google or wherever you get the audio version of this, you'll still be able to hear it there.

But now the video that you're watching won't be under the Sdpn channel. It'll be on its own breakout channel. So have fun with that. Please hit the link and subscribe to that. The videos aren't even... There are no videos yet. They'll start after this one is up. You're watching it right now, so it's up. I'm very excited. It's going to be a lot more short form video content, and it's going to be a lot of fun. Go hit subscribe there. It's going to be a blast. This new year, this 2024. Thank you for being here. You could have been anywhere in the world, which shows me here listening or watching this podcast right now, and I appreciate you. Good night from Toronto. Is how it's done. The Jesse Blake Sports Report with Jesse Blake. Jesse Blake, the guy that likes to hear his name twice in one sentence. Sure, I know him. No, he doesn't have an ego at all.