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're here today so that we can discuss the Buffalo Bills and their domination of the Dallas Cowboys. And not just the Buffalo Bills, though. I want to run down some of the other major things around week 15 of the NFL and how the playoff picture is looking as we get closer and closer to the happiest time of the year, NFL playoff time. So the Buffalo Bills today, complete domination, as I mentioned, of the Dallas Cowboys. Going into that game. The Bills, they've dropped six games so far in the season, and they shouldn't have lost six games. They have this thing where they play down to their competition and they play up to their competition. And the last couple of weeks, the people have been looking at the build schedule and they're saying they have a murderer's row coming up. It was the Eagles, then the Chiefs, then the Cowboys. They needed to take two of those three games just to keep themselves in the playoff hunt because of this hole they put themselves into early on in the season with these six losses.

Some of those losses, like the ones against the Broncos and the one on week one against the Jets. Those were unacceptable losses for a team that has playoff and Super Bowl aspirations, the loss against the Patriots as well. This team can't be losing those games, and they did. They have now a stretch of must-win games to end the season. And if it wasn't for Jake Elliot making a 80-yard field goal in the closing moments of The Eagles game, they could have gone three for three in their Eagle's Chief's Cowboys run. But they cleaned up, they beat the Chiefs. Very tight game, but they got it done thanks to Cedarius, Tony. Thank goodness. And then the Cowboys, it wasn't even close. Unlike the Eagles game, we're super close. Unlike the Chiefs game, we're super close. The Cowboys game was never close. And that is such a great sign for Buffalo Bills fans and the Buffalo Bills themselves heading into playoffs. Because the thing about the Bills and where the holes are, it comes on the defensive end. It comes in the tons of injuries that they have on the secondary, on the defensive side in the secondary.

They've had so many injuries. And that's where you think like, okay, going to this Cowboys game, they're facing the Bills. The Cowboys, they're excellent at. Excellent at dropping back, throwing a long one to CD and completing it. Getting somebody open in the flat and getting these deep, long passes. They've been so good at it these last couple of weeks. The Cowboys have that like, okay, they go up to Buffalo. You think their offense is going to have a good time moving the ball, but can they stop Buffalo? And it's going to be a war of the offenses. But no, the Buffalo defense showed up and they stopped the Cowboys. And now you have to rethink what the Buffalo Bills are. Because if they have this defense. And when their back is up against the wall and they know it's a must-win game, and if Josh Allen limits the mistakes, which is one of the key things here, if Josh Allen is there to limit mistakes, they can beat anybody in this league, maybe except for the 49ers, because I don't know if anybody can beat the 49ers right now. Other key part of this whole thing, James Cook.

If you had James Cook on your fantasy team and you played him, I hope he wasn't on your bench, congratulations, you're into the semifinals of your fantasy, Lee, because James Cook went off. And having that layer, Josh Allen said it in the postgame presser, it was pretty fun. It was a great line where he's like, he felt like the kid in the class project who just got to show up and they got a great grade because they won that game on the back of their running game. What have the Bills ever done that? The Bills won with their running game and their defense. That is not Buffalo Bills football. Buffalo Bills football is we're going to make a bunch of mistakes, but Josh Allen is going to bail us out with a couple deep bombs and he's going to scramble, he's going to make a nice play. And then our defense is going to have a bunch of holes and allow a whole bunch of points. But we're going to outscore our competition and barely win. That's not the win they had today. And that's why today's win is so impressive. It was a football game that they won that you can see like that is a team that can win those games in the playoffs.

Because the way they've been winning previously hasn't worked to get them to the Super Bowl. But this win against the Cowboys is a real win. Now, on the other side, you say, okay, the Cowboys, they're coming off of their biggest week against the Eagles. This is where they take a step back. They don't really care about this game. But the Cowboys are in it to win it. They still have to fight for home field. They haven't clinched anything yet. They clinched a playoff spot, but they are still fighting for home field. And now they're sitting back and I don't think... They're knocking the front runners for the division. They never were if the Eagles cleaned up the rest of their they would be the division winners. And tomorrow the Eagles play on Monday night, so we don't know how their week is gone. But the Eagles are 11 and three, and the Cowboys are 10 and four going to the last three weeks of the season. The division for them is out of reach. I'd say it's not super out of reach, but it's a little unlikely. I don't think they'll get it. So this game was important for the Cowboys.

You want that division when you want to be that second seed behind the 49ers who may never lose again. So there was something to fight for in the Cowboys. Also, just like every NFL team is fighting to win. I don't buy the idea that this was a giveaway game for the Cowboys and that they weren't really up for it. Now, every team wants to win. And Doc's got a lot to prove. I'm sure Doc wants that MVP in him. And then the entire Cowboys team laying this egg here and their defense not showing up to stop the Bulls definitely hurts Dack in that MVP conversation and hurts the Cowboys in their Super Bowl conversation. So great win today by the Buffalo Bulls. You love to see them add that extra layer to their offense. It's James Cook, I don't know where it came from, but if that is now a weapon that the Bills have consistently week in to week out, they're going to be real tough to eliminate. And they have to get to the playoffs first. That's the thing about the hole they dug them in, themselves in is that they have to get to the playoffs before we even talk about the playoffs games.

That's still a thing they have to do. And they got three games left. They got the Chargers, they got the Patriots, they got The Dolphins. All three of those games... Sorry, I yelled a little into the mic. All three of those games that did it again. There we go. All three of those games are winnable. The Chargers just fired Brandon Staley. Easton Stick is their quarterback. The Chargers should not win another game this season. The Patriots are like, they're talking about firing Bill Belichick in that they already got his successor lined up. I don't know what the Patriots are thinking. Bailey Zappi shouldn't be beating anybody right now. So that is definitely a winnable game. And then you have The Dolphins in week 18. And who knows if The Dolphins, if they win out in their own right, they could be easily not fighting for anything in that week 18 and they could sit, Toa. Toa can play a half of football, a quarter of football, or maybe even not the whole game. So that 18 is up in the air. It could also be for the division, depending on how these games go. It could be Miami versus Buffalo, and winner gets the division there.

So there's a lot riding on these next couple of weeks for the Bills because of the six losses they put up early on, which were... Well, I should say the five losses early on because they got to that Eagles game, and that Eagles game was close, and they could have definitely won that. So the Bills in a little bit of a hole, but they got two of the three games in the murderers row of the Eagles, Chiefs, and Dallas Cowboys. So it's looking good. And they can easily be 10 and six going into the final week of the season against the Dolphins. If the Dolphins drop a couple, they could also be 10 and six. They could be 11 and five. And then the Dolphins hold the tie break, though? I'm 99 % sure that the Dolphins on the tie break, it looks like. So the Bulls would have to need the Dolphins to lose the next two to fight for that division. If they're tied there. But an 11 and six record for the Bulls definitely get them into a playoff spot. 10 and six, who knows? Because the AFC is really tight here.

Looking at the picture, Ravens are the one seed, Dolphins are the 2, Chiefs are the 3, Jags are the four. Those are your four division winners right now. Sorry. Yeah, 1, 2, 3, 4. Yeah, I did four. Okay, and then the three wild cards are the Browns, Bangles, Colts. So one of those teams is going to have to drop off and the Bulls are going to have to steal one of those spots to get into the playoffs, cross-off teams. I'm already out on the Steelers. I think we can jump ahead now to the Steelers conversation that we need to have and move off the Bulls. Final thing to say, great win. Great win is looking pretty for the Bulls heading into the playoffs. One thing, before I get to the Steelers, one thing I always harp on with the NFL and the way football works, it's not about the team who's good during week one through five, week one through ten even. It's about the teams that are hottest and playing their best and healthiest heading into the playoffs. Those are the dangerous teams. You can be good in week five. You can look great for a whole bunch of weeks early on in the season.

You can rack up some wins. But if you're not healthy and playing your best football on week 16, 17, and 18, then you're not going to do well in the playoffs. That's how you become a real contender for the Super Bowels when you're playing well going into the playoffs. The Bulls are on that course right now. And speaking of teams that racked up wins early on and their play now, late in the season, isn't what it was and it really never was that good, the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Pittsburgh Steelers aren't a football team. This team is so bad. I'm starting to question Mike Tomlin. It is sacrilegious to question a Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback or a Pittsburgh Steelers head coach. But Mike Tomlin is having one of the worst seasons I've ever seen out of a Steelers head coach because they have been so consistent for decades. Their thing is we have one QB, we have one head coach, we ride them for 20 years, and then we get turnover with the next great one and the next great one. Mike Tomlin, his decision making these last couple of weeks has been an abomination. And I'm talking one particular play that happened this week with the Steelers on Saturday, was them choosing to pun the ball when they could easily just go for it or kick a long field goal in a game they were down by multiple scores.

It made absolutely no sense. I get you got no faith in your offense, you believe in your defense, but they punched the ball away. And then the Colts went all the way down the other side of the field, they drained most of the clock. And I sat there, I'm like, This isn't the Mike Tomlin I know. Mike Tomlin's better than this. But that's what he decided to do. And Kenny Pickett, we've seen so far this season, isn't a starting quarterback. They need to rethink that position entirely. And on the other side of the ball, just the mistakes. That was the other thing I wanted to touch on. Just the mistakes from the offense and the defense in terms of their attitude, Deonte Johnson and his partner there, George Pickens, they have some of the worst attitude out of wide receivers ever. They are not happy, and it shows in their body language throughout the season. I'm disappointed because you think that the Colts are a better organization than this. These little mistakes are the little mistakes you see out of teams like the Jags. Sorry, Jags fans, but those are the the Jags, the Chargers.

Those are the teams that you think are going to make these little mistakes where you're punching when you should be kicking a long field goal or going for it on fourth down, or a situation where your offensive lineman are constantly going offside, or a situation where your wide receivers aren't jumping on fumbles and their energy every single week in the press conferences, I don't want to be here. And that's where we're getting out of Pickens and Deonte. So I'm just so out on the Pittsburgh Stealers this season. And I don't know if upper management makes changes with Mike Tomlin, but his time, depending on how these last weeks go, it could be a serious conversation with Tomlin and his future in Pittsburgh. And I think that's just something to watch. I think it's very interesting. It's something to watch The Speaking of Futures and something to watch Bill Belichick. Those Bill Belichick rumors coming out of Pittsburgh are, or Pittsburgh, coming out of New England are fascinating because they're saying that they made a decision to not renew his contract for next year. And I don't know who's leaking those rumors, but I don't know if it's true.

So the latest report, sorry, I'm just pulling it up here, a new report from the NFL Networks, Ian Rappaport, pushed back on the notion that Robert Kraft firing Belichick at the end of the season is a done deal. Per Rappaport, Kraft has still not come to a firm conclusion on what's next for the head coaching situation in New England. So here's the actual quote, Sources say not only has owner, Robert Kraft, not come to a firm conclusion on what will happen next with his head coach situation, but the way New England finishes could go a long way to determining what's next. And I think that's always been the case. Nobody really knows what Robert Kraft is going to do. And I think it's disingenuous for anybody to report Bill's done at the end of the season. That was never the case because I don't know... Robert Kraft doesn't know what he's going to do. You can't make a decision on the greatest head coach of all time in week 15. That's not the case. I saw those reports. I'm like, we just need to wait and see. We're going to find some clarity here in the next couple of weeks on Bellacheck.

But the decision hasn't been made. It's still up in the air. I want to pull up their schedule here just to see what they got next. And I know we know they got at least the Buffalo Bills, but I don't know who else is on their schedule and what that's going to look like. Bailey Zappy was like, okay, today, but Mac Jones isn't a starting quarterback in this league. So the Patriots got the Broncos next week, then the Bills, then the Jets. Two out of three, they could easily take those games. What did Bailey Zappi put up this week? 180, one interception, one passing touchdown, four sacks. The nothing was going for the Patriots offense. I don't know how you judge a quarterback like Bailey Zappi right now because he's not going to take this offense and make it anything better. He's also not the quarterback of the future. They need a full reset in New England. If Bill Belichick's not down for a full rebuild, because I don't think it's a retool situation, their defense has looked really good at times. If we're being completely fair to the Patriots, their defense has looked really good at times, but the offense isn't there to sustain this team.

I don't know if it's a full reset in New England, but some reset must happen. Yeah, those weeks I was just looking at their schedule going back. The week 10, week 12, week 13, week 14, it was decent football from the defensive side of the ball. They allowed 10 points, 10 points, six points, and then they won against the Pittsburgh Stealers who are an abomination. There's been some hope. There's some good stuff to build on for next year in The Patriots. I think it's a retool situation. Bill Belichick's the greatest head coach of all time. I don't know whether or not this is like to pass him remains to be seen. That's a decision Robert Kraft has to make. But we will see what happens in New England. That's going to be a huge story this offseason. In terms of some of the other teams in the AMFC. My prediction right now for the playoff spots, I don't know if the Colts are going to sneak in there. I think it's Joe Flacko and the Browns. I don't know how Joe Flacko is doing it, but they had a miracle win against the Chicago bears today to push their record to nine and five.

And they look to be in a driver's seat for one of the playoff spots. It is going to be unbelievable to see Joe Flacko in the playoffs that they can make it. And next up, they have the Texans, the Jets and the Bengals. The Texans won... Oh, is that a must watch game? It's Brown's Texans next week. Is that a Saturday game or Christmas Day game? It's a Christmas Eve game, one o'clock. The Texans right now are the first team out of the playoffs. The Browns are the first wildcard team. If the Texans win, they can leapfrog into the playoffs. The Browns could fall off. They're nine and five. The Browns are the Texans are eight and six. Holy cow. That's going to be a really... There's a lot on the line in that game. Wow. If the Browns win that, they're going to playoff for sure. Because then after that, they got the jets and they got the Bangles. Who knows about the Bangles if Jake Browning can keep everything together? They got a whole bunch of weapons, obviously, in Cincinnati. But not having Joe Borough is going to hurt them forever for the rest of the season.

So I don't know if Jake Browning is for real. I don't think he is. Let me see their remaining schedule here so we can take a look at what they have coming up, see if they can keep this together. Bangle's schedule is the Stealers. Chalk it up as a win. Then the Chiefs, and then, as mentioned, the Browns versus the Bangles on the last week of the season, which could be a very big game. Saturday, huge game against the Steelers there. Jake Browning, I'm definitely not sold on him. The Browns won that game this weekend against the Vikings through no fault of their own. The Vikings are not good. I am not a believer in the Vikings. I'm just trying to see here. What am I looking at? There we go. Yeah, that OT game that happened over the weekend. Nick Mullins, I get he threw for 300 yards, but not feeling what the Vikings got left this year. Moving over to the... Oh, and other cross-off teams in the AFC. The AFC, it's the Ravens, Dolphins, Chiefs, Jags, Browns, Bangles, Colts. Those are the playoff teams. Texans, Bulls, Steeler, Broncos. In my eyes, the Texans and Bills are the only two teams that can fight for one of the remaining playoff spots.

We have those seven teams I just listed. The Texans and Bills are out of the playoffs. I think the Bulls sneak in, the Colts drop off. I think the Texas, whoever wins Texas Browns next week, I think, is the team that gets that other wildcard spot. Maybe the Bangles drop off. That's a hard one. That is really hard. I'm going to wait till week 16 plays out. I'm not going to make any predictions because I know they're not going to be right. All I know is the Bulls and Texans are the only teams left that have a shot at the playoffs in the AFC that aren't currently in a playoff spot. Moving over to the NFC, we talked a little about the Cowboys off the top of that Bulls game. The Lions this week took care of business against the Denver Broncos. Solid win there. It was funny to see Sean Payton get so mad at Russell Wilson. I never root for those two. I don't like either of those. Well, I shouldn't say I don't like them. I'm not a fan of Russell. I'm not that confident that Russell Wilson's game is there anymore.

And Sean Payton just seems a little palpest for my liking. I don't know why I'm taking side swipes at the Denver Broncos, but there it is. I put it on wax. All right, back to what I was talking about, the NFC playoff picture. The 49ers, Super Bowl favorites in my book, I don't think I'm putting... That's one prediction I'm making right now. I'm stabbing that right now on the pod. Jesse Blake's sports report predicts right now currently, the San Francisco 49ers will win the Super Bowl. I don't care whoever they are up against out of the AFC. I'm taking them every week of the playoffs until they are eliminated, if they are, until they win the Super Bowl. I am going to put money down on the 49ers winning every single game. That is my bet. Put it down right now. Put money on it. 49ers, Super Bowl. Next up, the Eagles who play on Monday night, as I mentioned earlier, going up against the Seahawks. Jaylen Hertz is questionable, surprisingly questionable. Going into Monday night, Jaylen Hertz, he has an illness. He's got a sickness. He flew to Seattle outside of the team. He's sick.

We'll see how he feels because over Saturday into sleeping Saturday and then waking up on Sunday, he got worse with his illness. We'll see what happens Monday. If he can't go, Marcus and Mariota steps in. But the Eels don't have a lot to play for at this moment. They need to get healthy for the playoffs. They're probably going to be that number two seed regardless of what happens, because I think they can hold off the Cowboys with Mariota if Hertz has to miss a couple of weeks. I think they'll be fine in that two seed. And then, like I mentioned, the lions are the three seed, the Bucks are the four seed in the worst division to ever happen in the history of time, the NFC South. Yeah, it's not a pretty conference. The NFC is so weak from the entire bottom. I'm ruining out the bears. The teams that have a shot for the playoffs, so in the playoffs right now, the 49ers, the Eagles, the Lions, the Bucks, the Cowboys, the Vikings, the Rams, those are the playoff teams right now. Outside of the playoffs, we have the Saints, the Seahawks, the Falcons, the Packers, the giants, the Bears.

Cross-off the bears, they're not making the playoffs. One thing I thought was very interesting was the Packers and their play over the last two weeks because it looked like the Packers and Jordan Love were primed to do something. It looked like they were getting ready for a little push here at the end of the season to make a run for one of those playoff spots. And they have just fumbled the bag completely. Getting absolutely manhandled by the Bucks this past weekend and then the weekend before when they could not beat the giants. Coming off of that Chief's win that the Packers had, everybody was so high. On the Packers, they went Chargers, Lions, Chiefs. Three in a row, three wins in a row. Three wins in a row. And then Jordan Love and the Packers have gone lost to the giants, lost to the Bucks. The Bucks look good. The Bucks are a good team. I believe in Baker Mayfield, weirdly. I believe in Mike Evans. Their defense is solid. I have nothing wrong with the Bucks. The Bucks are a legit playoff team. I'm picking them to win the NFC South because the Saints are so shaky.

I have no idea if the Saints can hold it together. The Vikings, as I mentioned earlier, I'm not a fan of the Vikings because of how decimated they are. Their offense had like... Okay, so the Vikings whole thing, let's talk about the Vikings for a moment here because I've watched a lot of Vikings football, weirdly this because I have a lot of their players across my fantasy football teams. Ty Chanler, wonderful for me this weekend. Jordan Addison, on my bench. Had a great week. Didn't play him. Regret that completely. I have Justin Jefferson in another league. Jj returned this weekend, solid output, but Addison was the star of the line of Addison and Chanler this past weekend. But the Vikings, their whole thing on defense is blitz, blitz, blitz, blitz, blitz. And they are very successful against teams that do not have a good quarterback. They can just blitz the hell out of them. The quarterback panics. They get into pressure. They make mistakes. It works. It works. It works. It works. Except it doesn't work against good teams. If you have a good quarterback that can handle the blitz, the Vikings can't do anything.

And on the offensive side of the ball, who the hell is their quarterback going to be? What are they going to ride with for the rest of the season? Josh Dobbs was their third QB going into this game. And nick Mullins is the new starter. Not having Kurt Cousins, it hurts them so much because there's like little pieces there with the Vikings, but they're not that solid. Like I mentioned about their defense, they can beat up on bad teams, but their offense is so stagnant. They have all the weapons at wide receiver. Alexander Madison at running back has not had a good season. So him being out is actually helpful because Ty Chanler looks more explosive than Alexander Madison ever was all year. So that's been good. But nick Mullins atquarterback, a defense that can't handle a good team, the Vikings are a little bit of frauds to me. So in that saying that, the Seahawks have blown a massive opportunity this year to sneak into a playoff spot because they could have easily been just like a decent team and stuck into that spot. I think the Saints might grab a spot from the Vikings, depending on how it goes.

I'm not sure like the Saints. I think I want to take a look at their schedule here and see what they got coming up. Because I think the Saints have enough in them to do this. It's the Bucks. They have the Rams next week, then the Bucks, then the Falcons. The saints have a little bit of a tough schedule. That Rams team is going to be tough. I think the Rams are a playoff team. I think Sean McVeigh is not going to go down without a fight. I think the Rams, they might have a loss on their schedule because of the 49ers. But they're playing the 49ers in the final week of the season. That game might not count for anything against the 49ers, so I can see the 49ers not playing anyone. Ram's Saints, Ram's giants, Ram's 49ers. I think the Ram's are a playoff team. They're going to get one of those seven spots. The Bucks got it. So that leaves one spot, the Viking spot, for one of the St. Seahawks, Falcons, Packers. I think it might be the Saints at seven and seven because the Packers fumbled it too much. Those are my seven NFC teams.

Unlike the AFC, I think I can predict the playoffs in the NFC. 49ers, Eagles, Lions, Cowboys, Bucks, Rams, Saints. I think that's what we got. I'm crossing off the Vikings. I don't think they make it. Seahawks, I think they lose tomorrow to the Philadelphia Eagles, putting them at six and eight, making it a tough road back to the playoffs. Falcons are already six and eight. I'm crossing off the six and eight teams. Giants, Tommy DeVito's Magic is going to run out. Don't believe in the giants at five and nine and the bears who are still technically in a playoff race, don't think they get it done either. So that's what I'm thinking about for the NFT. And that's what I'm thinking about week 15 of the NFL. I think I covered a lot there. I covered a lot of football. I'm going to do one more of these check-ins, I think, on week... Definitely the last week of the season, maybe going into the last week of the season. So maybe I'll do week 17. I'll come back with one of these. We'll see. We'll see how it goes depending on the news of the week that week.

That's it for me today. Thank you for being here to have been anywhere in the world where shows be listening or watching this podcast right now. I appreciate you for that. I will see you. I'm just trying to... I'm delaying. I did this at the end of the last podcast, where I'm delaying because I think I have news to talk about, but I don't really have anything more to say. So that's it. Good night from Toronto. That 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.