Happy New Year

Opening

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Transcript

Machine transcript generated in 2026 by Grok Bot from the episode audio (Whisper small.en + sherpa-onnx speaker diarization). Speakers labeled Opening / Jake / Justin. Timestamps about every three minutes. Diarization note: HOST_LOCK: after Opening, host/welcome voice = Jake; other = Justin; host-welcome cluster=1 @ 16.4s → Jake; other-primary cluster=0 → Justin; Justin name in host line kept on Jake (HOST_LOCK); Jason-ref Jake cluster 1 sim=0.70.

00:16 Jake: This is the Jet Kingdom Podcast, episode number 20 for Saturday, January 5th, 2008. Happy New Year. Well, welcome to Jet Kingdom Podcast, episode number 20. Can't believe we made it this long and a very happy new year. And across the digital eye in his own little happy new year is Justin. How are you doing Justin? Justin: I'm doing alright. Usually you let me introduce myself. Jake: You know at this point you're so infamous that people know who you are and they like you. They do? Cool. cool Okay, maybe they don't like you. Yeah, that's why I like it. I made that part up. But at the very least, we can be happy for one thing in the New Year. Justin: What's that? Jake: The Jets are undefeated in 08. They sure are. Undefeated, which brings us to the last game of the regular season in 2007 for the New and the city chiefs. otherwise known as the Return of Herme. It was a game in which I actually missed, I think it was the first home game that I had tickets for, and I didn't get to go to because I was traveling and they flexed it out of the time I could go. I was a little bummed about it, although having seen the ten people there at the game... It didn't look like it was a barn burner. But you know, the Jets win. Hey, the Jets win last game of the season. Feels very much like three years ago when we won against the Bills. It was actually a game two years ago, a game that you and I were both at. And which, you know, we basically ended off a crappy season with a win, a meaningless win, but a win nonetheless. And that was it. Justin: So, this one was actually meaningful. Jake: Oh, because we dropped in the draft? Justin: Yeah, I mean they dropped from the three spot to the six spot. Jake: Would you have really wanted to lose to harm? Justin: I mean that just would have made me sad. Yeah, you know you're right because the Kansas City team, they are awful. They are bad. They were pretty bad. And granted we only beat them in overtime so it wasn't like they're bad if we killed them. But they're often awful. Jake: I think that's the thing that can come of this game, the thing- Again, as I said going up into the games that didn't really matter for the regular season is that for me it's more about trying to see how our team is going to respond and are there players who are going to make moves and are there players that need to play for next year and just you know can do some things. I'll say right off the bat there's a couple you know again Jets win. in overtime, which was a good game. It was a fun game to watch. It didn't have all the angst of a normal game, because we didn't win, we didn't win, and

03:01 Jake: who cared? But a couple things stuck out of me about this game right off the bat. Brady Croyle, their starting quarterback, I guess their rookie, actually second year rookie. He's the same class as Colin Clemens. He's not very good. Justin: No. Jake: He's not very good at all. They need to think about some choices for next year. Herm has already said that he's the starter for next year. I expect them to go out and get somebody else. The other thing was, you know, Kellen is looking okay. He's not looking, he's not barn burning. He's not doing amazing things. He's not, he clearly has some pocket issues, as we've discussed. I know that comes with, as you say, comes with... with some years and experience. But he's just, he kind of gets lost back there. There's one player I remember where they kind of swarmed and he kind of ran left and ran right and then just got engulfed. So I think that's a problem. He has an arm. I mean goodness knows he has an arm. Justin: He can throw the ball and he can throw the long ball and chicks dig the long ball. So do dudes. Dudes check the long ball. Dudes check the long ball? They do. Jake: He's certainly not putting up great numbers. I mean he's throwing about 50%. But the thing I liked about this game was that he drove the team and again he's done this in a couple games. He drives the team at the end. He can do the two minute drill and as we watched, you know we'll talk about it a little bit later. the two-minute drill At the end of the game is is the most important in some ways It doesn't matter what you do in the game as long as you keep it close if you can't run that that two-minute drill And if you have four minutes left in the game And you're down by two two scores And you take you know two minutes and thirty seconds to to go down there and score and you pull away tons of time as a game on Saturday night You know it's just not gonna be a you're not gonna win games so He drove us down. They kicked the field goal and overtime actually made them kick it. I think three times No, because he kicked he they called the timeout. Yeah, cuz he he iced him twice, right? He called the naughty. No, they didn't nice him twice just once. No, he never actually kicked it. Well, remember he He did. It was, he kicked it. Listen, are you going to go back to the play-by-play? He iced him. He kicked it and got it. But there was a penalty. They put him back 10 yards, then they iced him again, and then he kicked it again. So, I mean, it was like this long, overly, you know, thing at the end. So, you know, what did you see? What did you see that he liked and what did you see that he didn't like? Justin: Well, we ran the ball pretty good. That's true. I like that. Yeah. With a mishmash of offensive linemen, I think, I don't know who these guys were, some of them. I really didn't. They definitely tried some guys out in those last game to see what they had next year. I don't know who some of these guys were, but they ran the ball pretty good.

06:00 Justin: Thomas Jones almost 100 yards. Washington heading about 70. So... They definitely ran the ball good. They didn't throw the ball that well. I mean, Clemens didn't do too much. Only four guys caught him. Only four guys had a reception. And it's becoming clear to me that we cannot afford to, as the rumor mills go on, we cannot afford to lose Laverne's coals, because we're nothing without... You know, he's our real number one receiver. Like, he's a real weapon. When him and Khatria are both on the field... No one worries about Wallace Wright. No one's worrying about him beating you or Justin McCarrens or any of those guys. Jake: Yeah, I don't know. I think Coles, I think actually Coles is time. We need a number one receiver and Kachri is not that number one receiver. He's a great receiver but he's not the number one. But we can get a number one receiver in the free agency or somewhere. I don't know if Cole's... Again, I think he's on the wrong side of 30. at this point, he's good but he's starting to mouth off already and that doesn't bode well two days after the game is over. He's mouthing off about contracts and stuff. If he stayed, that'd be great. But I think a receiver is someone we could go pick up. I mean, God only knows, you can go pick up a... Discruntered receiver and from some other team and turn them into the greatest receiver to ever play the game and set records Which means and we can slowly close out this game and boom end of the jet season and now let's talk about oh Justin: I don't wanna I don't wanna end the jet season just yet. It's over Jake: Come on painful Justin: I need one last thing. Oh, I mean, I think it's worth mentioning as much as we've been on Thomas Jones all season We did finish number 10 in the NFL rushing. That's true I don't know what that says for the rest of the NFL Because I mean really I mean he had about almost I guess almost 1200 yards, somewhere in there. 1100-1200 yards. Um, it was the most ineffective top 10 rushing season I've ever seen, to be honest. Because it was rather ineffective. But, but then look at the numbers. Jake: If you get deeper into the numbers, besides just the total yards, he had 310 carries. So, breaking the three point one. It's a lot of carries. He averaged 3.6 average and he had one TD. So, you know, okay, so he gets the top 10, but if the top 9 are basically in two point in dual back systems or get hurt or, I mean, that's the thing is a lot of running backs got hurt this year. A lot of running backs are in two back systems where they're not putting up, you know, they're is not good. Just his total yards is great for a season, but not based on the amount of carries, not based on his average, and certainly not based on one TD. One TD for the season, that's ridiculous. So, you know, you can say it's a jazz thing, but we did

09:02 Jake: give him enough carries, that's a lot. I just think in the end of the day, again, And again, it happened in this game too. You know, it's third and one. and they can't get a yard. And then it's fourth and one, and they can't get a yard. If you can't get a running back to get you one yard and two plays, done. Dunners, stop, over. Maybe it's the offensive line. I honestly think that Thomas Jones is just, I don't know. He didn't show up in big games. He didn't pound the ball. In this game, he had some great runs, and the damn announcers were all over him. He's saying how great he was I was like yeah, he's running against a team that's half packed up And you know he gets nine yards nine yards is like okay, so what he's not he's not changing games And we need a game changer and everybody wants an agent Peterson, but I think we need someone a little bit Justin: Well, we screwed ourselves by winning this game McFadden sitting there. Yeah, that's that's all hype come on Jake: You don't he's not sitting there. He's not anywhere. You don't know what's gonna happen Why not? One player isn't going to change. You want that game changer. I do. But where did Adrian Pearson come from? He came from I think fourth or fifth pick last year. Justin: Yeah, exactly. Right. Because no one needed a running back. I mean, that's all. You just, whoever needs a running back takes the best running back. I also want a bigger back. Jake: I think having two, you know, he's five ten, two, five ten. I kind of want a guy who's more on the, you know, six foot, one of those big backs, those Maroney backs, those, the Brandon Jacobs backs, you know, someone who's just going to kill people because we have a scat back. We have a fast guy who can give the ball. We have a Tiki Barber-esque guy. You know, Thomas Jones was supposed to be that guy who could pound it up the middle, and he never did. He never pounded up the middle. He always did a little juke or a jig and picks up 3.6 yards. That's just not enough. So I don't know. I'm not saying he's done or that he wouldn't be good next year, because he could come back and if the offensive line gets better and better. you know better scheming then it's possible he could uh... come back and be something but anyway let's alright for the last time of the year let's call are nights and fools for the game uh... yeah yeah you have to do nights and fools so I'm gonna give it to you for I'll give you my night since they won nights are first and my night of the day is is I'm going to give it to David Harris. You know, again, I look at David Harris. That was my night. Well, you know, that's why if you were paying attention, he's just all over the field. He's awesome. He's a great tackler. He is. He's in the backfield more often than not. It's impressive. I like the way he plays. He just... I'm sorry he only played, you know, half the season. He would have won Defensive Rookie of the Year, if not for that. I mean, he was right up there in tackles.

12:01 Jake: That's my night of the game. Who's yours? And one, two, three. Justin: I guess since you stole my night, I will pick... I'm gonna go with Thomas Jones. Why not, he had a good game. He scored a touchdown. He had almost 100 yards. Controlled the ball. Let's see, how did we do it as far as time was in? I mean, maybe I should just give it to the running game in general, because they did do pretty damn good, and we did control the ball for most of the game, or the majority of the game, I should say. So I'm gonna give mine to the running game. Jake: Alright, alright. Justin: Two headed monster running game of Thomas Jones and Leon Washington. Jake: Yep, they did pretty well. It was a good running game. You put up good yards on them. You look at the numbers. Leon seems to be putting up better numbers on average. I mean his yards per carry, or yards. uh... this is better but uh... thomas jones okay running game okay we have to give it a little bit to tell comes to picked up eighteen yards as well Justin: uh... or Jake: and country yeah i'm gonna have to give mind uh... for the week only my for the week i want to change it up a little bit and since it's the last game of the season and uh... We'll probably do fool the year come up in a couple episodes but for the week. I'm gonna give it to Herman Edwards Yeah, he can I give it everybody want I'll give it to him and I'll tell you why first of all He's now talking about like well in just in the game. You know I Just I'm sick of him. I don't want to see him I don't like seeing him in the middle ends and read I feel like he bailed on us Justin: I feel like he went for the better job Are you glad he went though? Why are you mad at him? I don't know. Good to see you. Because I thought it was like a bailing. I don't know the whole story, but I used to be a big Herum supporter Jake: I feel like it's slowly turning into a little bit of anger and so I'm gonna give him the Fool of the Week. Herum You're the Fool. You're still not a very good clock manager And your team is just as bad as ours and Kansas City Chiefs hate you and uh... and i doubt you'll be and that we want more you get one more year and then you're then you're done you're off somewhere else Justin: who's your full out that's it one year so i have to actually pick a fool in the game that we want always he doing this just a picture of some parents and even play Jake: well he doesn't show up any stats so yes he probably dropped some balls so Justin: I'm gonna just pick him. Again. Jake: Yeah, just him. Alright. Well he's my Fool of the Year, so... He'll be your Fool of the Year. But not even given away. If you're paying attention, don't pay attention. We'll come back to Fool of the Year. No one's paying attention, don't worry. Alright, so let's go on to the big game. Let's go on to the Patriots Giants game. Justin: No, I don't want to go on to the big game, the Patriots Giants.

15:00 Justin: Okay, look. Alright. It wasn't a big game. It was a good game. Jake: Hey, you know what? Let's ignore it completely. Justin: Yeah, fuck that. Jake: We don't care. Justin: It didn't happen. It didn't even happen at Jet Kingdom. Jake: That's right. At Jet Kingdom? Justin: So what? That's when Undisputed, that's it. It wasn't a big game. It wasn't a great game. Whatever. Alright. Jake: So let's talk a little bit about other Kingdom things that's going on in the other... Justin: Shit, now we have to talk about the Patriots. because clearly they were not on the right path. Yeah. And they hired a guy who they knew was going to do that. Jake: I'm surprised he even took as long as he did to take. But clearly they're going to go down. Justin: He let them finish up the season and do their, you know, after the season's over, they have to do their postseason reviews of all the players. And I'm sure every head coach meets with every single player individually at the end of the season and gives them a. talking to for you know, I'm sure I'm sure some players get a longer meeting than others obviously like the 53rd guy the special teams guy probably gets a couple minutes, but you know the quarterback probably gets you know half hour so and After that was all said and done it was clear he was gonna go. Yeah cam cam obviously even if he'd Jake: He just didn't do a very good job. There was some really bad game management stuff. Clearly the draft was horrible, but part of that is Mueller is gone. Justin: He's clearly an offensive coordinator. Jake: And if you want to start over, I think part of the problem of holding on to Cam Cam, even if he was a great head coach, is that he needs, Parcells wants to make his stamp on this Dolphins team. and so I just think keeping over the guy who just maybe did eight and eight or something and say, okay, well, he was kind of building. But having the worst season ever in the history of the Dolphins, only five of the teams, or six of the teams, sadly the Jets were one of them, have had a one in 15 season. And so, yeah, he's gone. And Coach of the Year, I won't discuss that. Breaking records. as one record broke on Sunday. Justin: There are so many records broken. Jake: Yeah, well the ones we're not going to talk about. But we will talk about the one that Tony Gonzalez became the number one receiving tight end in the NFL. Justin: He's been damn good and consistent for a long time. And he's got some time left in him too. He's not done. He's got probably a year or two. Yeah, I mean when Shannon Sharp said that record, I mean he was at the end of his career, not as great of a player as he always was. Gonzalez is still just as good as he ever was. Jake: Alright, I totally agree. Gonzalez is good, although he's probably on a crappy team for a while, so we'll see if he wants to get out of there and go do something else, like get a Super Bowl ring.

18:01 Jake: Cause he certainly doesn't have one, right? He's been playing with the Chiefs all the time, right? Alright, and then let's get on to the wildcard weekend because you know what, I'm actually excited about it even though the Jets are out and I have one last statement about the Jets season. We'll talk about it, I guess not one last statement. But my one thing, I came to a conclusion this last couple days after the game, something that's made me feel a little bit better about where we are and where we're going. It is that when we look at the beginning of the season, I think you predicted 10-6, I predicted 9-7. So if I really thought that the Jets were going to go 9-7 this year, and I really did, I thought that they were not going to do as well as last year, I thought they kind of got some lucky breaks last year, and then they didn't do so well, you know, I thought they were going to do a little bit less, they had a harder schedule, etc. Well where would 9-7 have gotten us in the playoffs? Nowhere. Nowhere. Yeah, we wouldn't have made the playoffs. So I always said we were going 9 and 7 and maybe make a wildcard berth. Well, we're going 9 and 7. We weren't making a wildcard berth. If you look at the breakdown of who made it in and the scores, I mean 10 and 6 teams didn't make it in. So 9 and 7 wouldn't have got us in there. So knowing that we wouldn't have gotten in anyway, in retrospect, I feel okay that we didn't get in. If we didn't get in, we'd watch more games than I thought we would. five more but you know we didn't make it in and I didn't really think we were either. So I feel good about that. That's it. That's the way I make myself feel good about the season. But anyway, let's go. Good for you. So now it's the playoffs. It's the playoffs. playoffs? Yes, it's the playoffs. And we have Wild Card Weekend. We have some great matchups. I'm excited for all of them. One's today. This is actually on Saturday. And then we have some coming up. But today and tomorrow for what a really good games, so let's talk about the games And then we'll give her a throne text as we talk about them all right Let's start off with the first game which is Actually, Washington is flying out to Seattle to play the Seahawks in for 30 at a 4.30 game today. What do you like about this game? What do you see it? How do you see it happening? Justin: Well, Washington has that, uh, angel kind of thing going, you know. They feel like they have a 12th man kind of looking over them. Uh, but Seattle is a really, really hard place to go and play. Um, this Washington team kind of reminds me of that. Jets team of like 2000 and I think it was 2002 maybe when they won their last bunch of games They got hot and then went into the playoffs and killed Peyton Manning At home all of this one's on the road Todd Collins kind of reminds me of Chad that season the way he throws the ball the way he plays He's just like a smart accurate quarterback Not the biggest arm. I think Washington's gonna win in this low scoring game 17-13. Jake: Interesting, interesting. I actually do not think that Washington's gonna do it. I think that the two teams that kind of played their hearts out last week, left it on the field.

21:03 Jake: So I think, I think Washington flying all the way over there to Seattle, they played great in Seattle. It's a hundred percent chance of rain today in Seattle. Um, you know, they took the week off last week. They're rested. They're at home. Washington played their minds out. They got to go on the road. I, you know, Todd Collins, you know, he's played four games or five games. It's just not enough to, to go play and play, play in the playoffs and win. Clinton Portis can run the ball, but I really see Sean Alexander stepping it up if he can like carry it 20 times. and just keep the defense honest. I think the defense, which has been pretty good in Seattle, can step it up. I really think Seattle is going to win this game. I think they'll put up some points, but in the rain, not too many. Let's go 24-18. That's what I'm calling for the Seattle. Then, which is probably the match-up of the game, or of the weekend, is Jacksonville. heading back to Pittsburgh where they defeated them earlier in the year and uh... take them on again uh... you know Justin: that's not going to be easy Jake: lily parker's out uh... ben roethlisberger's been playing a little bit hurt and uh... jacksonville's been on a roll they're a tough team they arrested their starters last week uh... and they've proven that they can win in heinz field which is huge so uh... i think for this game i'm really Again, I think that the team that wants it more, that kind of has a better well-rounded team and isn't missing their number one starting running back is going to win. I think Jacksonville will go right back there and I think they're going to whup them badly. They're a tough defense. They're a physical team. It's supposed to be 40 degrees, so it's not going to be a weather factor game. I just think they're going to take it to Pitt and Pitt will be one and done in the playoffs. offs. I think the score, they don't want to write it up. Probably get to like 28... Pittsburgh will stay in there. 28-21. Justin: Wow. We couldn't differ anymore on this game, I think. I think Pittsburgh is going to look at this game like... Like they're the underdogs like really we're the home team We're the the team that won the Super Bowl two years ago and we're home here in the playoffs Against this team that has you know None of these guys have real playoff experience. I mean some of them do but their quarterback doesn't that's for sure And they're the underdogs at home at night in Pittsburgh. It's gonna be freezing that feels gonna be terrible Think Pittsburgh's actually gonna lay it on Jacksonville to be honest Jacksonville I think has that that feeling of they rested their starters. We're supposed to go in there We're supposed to win. We already beat them once I'm gonna go Pittsburgh winning 24 10. Jake: Alright, alright, that's, you know, I don't agree but okay.

24:03 Jake: And then on Sunday we have the Giants going down to Tampa Bay where the Giants just played the game we won't talk about and basically, you know, again, what I feel is really leaving it on the field. That's what we're all about. This is a team that you kind of got the good Eli, bad Eli thing. Sometimes you can show up good and bad in the same game. You kind of showed up good in the last game for half of it and then kind of petered out towards the end. The play calling there at the end with the two minute drill, they had four minutes and they wasted so much time. Tampa Bay has been resting their starters. They play a very aggressive defense at home. I think New York Giants are going to be third year in a row. They're not going to have a win in the postseason. And the Giants are going to get beat down. I say it's a 13 to 20 game. Justin: Tampa Bay wins. Now, again, I disagree. I think we disagreed on all these games. Yeah, really? Well, we'll see what the Lions do. So far, I think we're going to agree on the next one. But, uh... I think the Giants are going to beat Tampa. I don't think Tampa is so that good. To be honest, they play in a crap division in the NFC. The Giants play in the best division in the NFC where every team finished at 500 or more. Three of the four teams made the playoffs. And they have a running game. and they can run the ball. So... And they can play defense. So I think the Giants are gonna win this game. I think they're gonna win... 21 to 13. Alright. Last game. Jake: Tennessee going out to San Diego. Tennessee had to win it in against Indy, who were playing their, you know, second, third, fourth string, playing anybody on the side. Now it's San Diego, again, resting there, starters, sitting waiting for people to come and play with them. This one we'll probably agree on. What do you think first of all? What do you think on this one? Justin: Well, I'm going to take San Diego in this game. By a lot. By a lot. They're going to run up the score. I think it'll be like 38 to like 10 or something. But Tennessee needs to stop being stupid and just play Vince Young. Um... And not even think about playing Kerry Collins. Oh, really? Is he thinking about it? Yeah, I mean game time decision, right? It's one of those kind of things where Vince Young has like kind of practiced But he's still a game time decision and they haven't made up their mind yet. So It's not you know, it's not because of to me It shouldn't be because of performance, but Kerry Collins did win them the game last week whatever you still carry collins uh... you have a way better chance of winning live in seattle must he should he deserves he deserves to play any deserves to get the experience of playing in a playoff game Jake: i think this andy a go is uh... yeah i think they're gonna be done with again

27:00 Jake: tennessee's got some injuries uh... they seem to win by the c their pants last week was named they they would not have won that game if if pate in the state in there uh... i don't know if pate in place they would see a so I just don't think they're good enough. Maybe, maybe if their defense can get to Philip Rivers, because he has not played very consistently at all. But you have LT, you have a very good defense, you have Merriman out there. They're at home in the sunshine. They're hot, too. They've won 10 of 12. Yeah, they've really turned it up in the second part of the year. I agree. I think this is like a, I think they'll keep it closer, though. This tends to be a score of... more than a couple times. So I think it'll be San Diego wins 3124 is my prediction. And that are our throne picks and the end of this podcast for today. I always have to do the shout out to JetKingdom.com. You go to www.jetkingdom.com and send us an email at podcast. If you want to discuss anything with us or tell us that we're crazy, a happy new year to all our listeners and a happy 20th episode to you, Justin. And have any final thoughts on Wild Card Weekend? Justin: I'm just going to sit back, relax, and enjoy it. No Jets, so no stress. Watch the games. Jake: Look for the free agent signings that we can sign up next year. Yep. And for that, as always, even though they're not playing, we, as always, say, Go Jets.