MORNING-11
NFL seasons.>
Championship games. Here to break it down our Brian Jones and Gregg
Giannotti. Their show Gio and Jones can be heard every weekday morning on
the CBS Sports Radio network.>
VINITA NAIR: Well, for pro-football fans, this might be the best weekend of the NFL seasons. Four games over two days will determine next week`s Conference Championship games. Here to break it down our Brian Jones and Gregg Giannotti. Their show Gio and Jones can be heard every weekday morning on the CBS Sports Radio network. Good morning, guys.
GREGG GIANNOTTI (CBS Sports Radio): Good morning.
BRIAN JONES (CBS Sports Radio): Good morning. This is late for us. We`re up at four every morning. It`s been great.
VINITA NAIR: But you`ve been staying up with us. Well, let`s talk about this weekend. Because not only are people saying it is the two best days a lot of people are saying this is the most even match ups we`ve seen in a while.
GREGG GIANNOTTI: Yes. In the NFL even when you think things are not going to be entertaining it always turns out that way. Think about last Saturday, you had a terrible game the first game.
ANTHONY MASON: Mm-Hm.
GREGG GIANNOTTI: The second game is three quarters of just total mess. And then you have a game that you are never going to forget between the Steelers and the Bengals. So these match ups on paper, a lot better than we have last week. They always deliver.
BRIAN JONES: They do. And you`ve got three match ups that are rematch ups from the regular season --is that a word, rematch ups? Already season--
GREGG GIANNOTTI: Well, it is now.
ANTHONY MASON: I like it.
BRIAN JONES: You know what, Tupac said, the sweetest joy is revenge. So we`re going to see if some teams can exact some revenge against foes that beat them during the regular season.
ANTHONY MASON: All right. Let`s take these games in order, Kansas City versus New England. Kansas City ten game winning streak--
GREGG GIANNOTTI: Mm-Hm.
ANTHONY MASON: --but they`re coming up against England, New England the Super Bowl champs. So what do you see here?
BRIAN JONES: Don`t shortchange. It`s s an eleven game winning streak. Okay. I`m going to call you out because you always call me out on my college picks, right? So I got you. Yes. What a New Year it is. I`ll tell you what, Kansas City when they play defense, I love this defense. They get off the quarterback and you know that offensive line for New England, they`ve been hampered for most of the season. Julian Edelman may come back. He`s a great security blanket for Tom Brady. But it`s going to come down to protecting Tom Brady. You got the Kansas City D, what they -- they were third in sacks and NFL. So that`s going to be the key in my estimation.
GREGG GIANNOTTI: Yeah. I don`t have a Tupac quote to talk about the Patriots. But they are a mess right now injuries.
BRIAN JONES: Yeah.
ANTHONY MASON: Yeah.
GREGG GIANNOTTI: Now they`re getting some guys back. Julian Edelman, that`s a big deal for Tom Brandy, but Gronkowski`s knee crops up. Bill Belichick had a black eye out of nowhere at a press conference. Nothing is going right for the Patriots. So we`ll see if they can get back and be the New England Patriots, or maybe this just isn`t one of those Patriot years.
BRIAN JONES: And Chandler Jones with a synthetic marijuana--
GREGG GIANNOTTI: Yeah.
BRIAN JONES: --I need to trade him to Colorado or Seattle, man. I mean, come on. Get the real stuff, baby.
VINITA NAIR: Let`s talk about Green Bay and the Cardinals. Because this is a rematch up--
GREGG GIANNOTTI: Yes.
VINITA NAIR: --as you put it.
BRIAN JONES: Yep.
VINITA NAIR: How do you think it`s going?
BRIAN JONES: Yeah. Rematch up. Yeah. Y`all can-- y`all can have that now. Okay. Well, you know, Cardinals owned Green Bay the last time. Nine sacks. More sacks than Green Bay had points. Only eight points in that beat down that the Cardinals put on them. But the Green Bay Packers played much better last week. And I know why some hadn`t defeated the team with a winning record during the regular season. But they win and they only allowed one sack. And this is another team trouble on the offensive line. But Aaron Rodgers look liked Aaron Rodgers of old. They were able to run the rut, that`s going to be the key. Balance on offense.
GREGG GIANNOTTI: They look like the Packers of all the Aaron Rodgers of old because of the opponent. And no offense to Washington Redskins fans but they stink. They didn`t deserve to be in the playoffs.
BRIAN JONES: No offense, but you stink.
GREGG GIANNOTTI: I`m sorry. They know it. The fan didn`t watch that team all year.
VINITA NAIR: Well, a lot of people say this is the game with the most potential for a blowout. Do you agree with that?
GREGG GIANNOTTI: Oh, I think it will be. I don`t think it will be as bad as the last time they face a thirty-point deficit.
BRIAN JONES: Mm-Hm.
GREGG GIANNOTTI: But to me this game it`s a-- it`s a mismatch. Arizona is a legit Super Bowl contender. And I think they are the most solid team on both sides of the ball as the NFL has to offer.
BRIAN JONES: Ton of weapons on that offense to side of the ball. John Brown, Larry Fitzgerald. Forget giving him the AARP Card, both thousand yard receivers on the season. And then you factor in the run in game, and Carson Palmer`s playing like he did during his Heisman campaign at USC.
ANTHONY MASON: All right. Let`s look at Seattle versus Carolina. Seattle barely got by Minnesota-- they`ve got a gift--
GREGG GIANNOTTI: Yeah.
ANTHONY MASON: --on that misfield goal. And Carolina is fifteen and one. So what do we -- what do you see here?
GREGG GIANNOTTI: I picked against Carolina every single week this season because I didn`t believe in them. And then finally I said, all right, enough is enough. They are fifteen and one. So I can`t pick against them today but how could you pick against Seattle as well. I`m going to take the Carolina Panthers. Think about the Seattle Seahawks. Last year in the NFC Championship Game--
ANTHONY MASON: Mm-Hm.
GREGG GIANNOTTI: --nobody thought they were going to win that game. And then last week twenty-seven yard field goal missed. But Carolina to me with Cam Newton, he`s the best player in football right now. He`s not going lose this game. This is that special year where everything works out for franchise. Carolina beat Seattle.
BRIAN JONES: And by the way, that really hurt him. He`s a long-- lifelong Vikings fan. So take that.
GREGG GIANNOTTI: Yeah. I`ve got the scars to prove it.
BRIAN JONES: Yes, you could. I`ll tell you what, but real quick, Russell Wilson, the most maligned disrespected quarterback in all the NFL. They always give the credit to the running game which Marshawn Lynch does return but he hasn`t played since week ten. We`ll see how well he can effect change on this defense for Carolina that`s dynamite. Two excellent defenses that will knock the snot out of you.
VINITA NAIR: Oh, you mentioned QBs. Let`s talk about Pittsburg and Denver. You have Roethlisberger with a hurt shoulder, Manning with a hurt foot. How do you see this game?
BRIAN JONES: Let`s see. Shoulder or foot?
VINITA NAIR: Which is the worst injured.
BRIAN JONES: Well they`re-- they`re both beaten up but they are both pros. And they have seen a lot of football. They`ve seen a lot of schemes thrown at him, especially Payton Manning. He`s going to try to get rid of the football quickly. He`s going to have to have a running game. Speaking of running game, the Steelers, they were committed to the run last week, twenty-nine rushes in that ball game. TNT Todman and Tuscan-- the Tuscan the young football player, they`re running back position. So they have got to be committed again at the run to take some pressure off of Ben going to up against the NFL`s best D.
GREGG GIANNOTTI: And it`s not the Ben injury. That`s a problem.
BRIAN JONES: Yes.
GREGG GIANNOTTI: DeAngelo Williams and the two young running backs have to step up. And Antonio Brown is out. One of my favorite players in the NFL, one of the most productive wide receivers I`d ever seen.
VINITA NAIR: Yes.
GREGG GIANNOTTI: He`s not going play against that Broncos defense. Tough, tough match up.
VINITA NAIR: Brian and Gregg will you come back for rematch up here?
ANTHONY MASON: A rematch.
VINITA NAIR: The rematch up here. Yeah.
GREGG GIANNOTTI: The rematch up, sure. Yeah.
BRIAN JONES: Oh, yeah. You`re making fun of me now. So it`s a word now.
GREGG GIANNOTTI: It`s a word.
VINITA NAIR: We`ve just remind you. Yes.
BRIAN JONES: Put in the Harvard dictionary, the rematch up.
VINITA NAIR: Thank you, guys.
GREGG GIANNOTTI: Yeah. That was embarrassing. For real.
BRIAN JONES: I`m embarrassed every morning.
GREGG GIANNOTTI: It really-- it really was. I mean, jeez.
VINITA NAIR: Thanks, guys. All right. You can catch the first of the divisional playoff games this afternoon at four thirty-five Eastern Time right here on CBS. And tomorrow the Pittsburgh Steelers will be in Denver to take on the Broncos at four forty Eastern Time.
ANTHONY MASON: It`s about ten after the hour now. Here`s a look at the weather for your weekend.
(LOCAL WEATHER BREAK)
ANTHONY MASON: Up next, Detroit shows off what it knows best. Cars, cars and you guessed it more cars. We visited the North American International Auto Show.
You`re watching CBS THIS MORNING: SATURDAY.
Graphics on Screen:
On This Date 1920 Prohibition went into effect in the U.S. On This Date 1938 Benny Goodman brings jazz to Carnegie Hall
On This Date 1964 The musical "Hello, Dolly!" starring Carol Channing opens on Broadway
On This Date 2003 Space shuttle Columbia launches for its final mission.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
ANTHONY MASON: The Motor City lived up to its name this week as the North American International Auto Show got underway in Detroit. About forty vehicles made their worldwide debut at the annual event which opens to the public today. Yahoo! Finance columnist Rick Newman was in Detroit for the press preview and he`s here to tell us more about the show. Rick, good morning.
RICK NEWMAN (Yahoo! Finance Columnist): Hi.
ANTHONY MASON: Good year for the auto makers. Seventeen million cars they sold which is-- we`re back to levels we haven`t seen since like 2000.
RICK NEWMAN: They are killing it. It was a terrific year for the auto industry. Anybody who says look at the stock market, wipe out, we`re going to enter a recession, car sales are not telling us that. Car sales are telling us American consumers have money and they`re willing to commit to big purchases like a car. The average price of a new car is about thirty- four thousand dollars. People are spending money on cars.
VINITA NAIR: What about Volkswagen and GM, though? I mean we had-- there was a big scandal for both last year.
RICK NEWMAN: Yeah. You have to separate them, I think. So GM had this horrible problem with the ignition switches. That`s associated with that recalls. I think GM has basically put that behind it. They were very aggressive about, look we just need to be the new GM, we need to take care of the people. They compensated victims. They paid out a lot of money. They settled with the government and they did do a pretty good job getting that behind them. So that they --what they want is, they want people to look at their cars, not their problems and they have gotten there. VW is not there yet. They still haven`t even said how they are going fix this problem with the diesels that, where they fake the gas mileage accept when the cars being tested. They`re not selling any diesels. That was a big part of their lineup. They`re not selling those cars. They`re still hurting and they need to get that right soon.
ANTHONY MASON: So let`s look at some of the trends. A lot of folks have been talking about Apple and Google and self-driving cars, but the auto industries working on this a lot, too.
RICK NEWMAN: Apple and Google,I`ll make a prediction, are never going to build a car. What they want to do is they want to provide the software that goes into everybody`s car. That`s what they do.
ANTHONY MASON: Right.
RICK NEWMAN: They make software.
ANTHONY MASON: Right.
RICK NEWMAN: Google`s into mapping. That`s an important technology. That`s going to be necessary for self-driving cars. They want to partner with the auto makers. Let the auto makers build factories and bend the sheet metal. They don`t want to do that. Apple is the same. They want to get into the technology. They want to basically put the interface in the car so that what we do on our phones is going to be in our cars and we`re getting there.
VINITA NAIR: What about electrons and hybrids? Are there anything that really stood out to you when you--
RICK NEWMAN: Well everybody has an electric car now. The real question about electric car is-- is when are they going to become affordable? Most-- most consumers do the math and they say wow that`s interesting, but it`s expensive and I can`t go more than a hundred miles or whatever the range is. We`re getting to a point where the cost is coming down, the range is going up. One really interesting car to watch this year is the Chevrolet Bolt, it will be about thirty-eight thousand dollars to start but you get a seventy-five hundred dollar tax credit. So it brings it to about thirty thousand dollars. General Motors says that will go two hundred miles on a charge, that`s pretty good.
ANTHONY MASON: It also has something called one pedal driving. Describe that to me?
RICK NEWMAN: This is a feature. You don`t have to use it. But you can if you want. And the electric-- the electric drive in this car works in a way that when you take your foot off the accelerator--
ANTHONY MASON: Mm-Hm.
RICK NEWMAN: --the car decelerates very quickly and you can actually come to a stop in most driving situation just by taking your foot off the accelerator.
VINITA NAIR: But what do you do on a sudden stop?
RICK NEWMAN: Well, you have a break. The brake pedal was still there.
VINITA NAIR: Oh.
ANTHONY MASON: Mm-Hm.
RICK NEWMAN: If you want to use it. But I`ve tried this on a different car that BMW i3 and it`s very weird at the beginning. You keep-- your always stopping short--
ANTHONY MASON: Right.
RICK NEWMAN: --and it`s really jerky. But you get used to it pretty quickly. And actually it`s pretty cool. I mean it`s easier to just control the car from one pedal than to keep moving from one pedal to the other.
ANTHONY MASON: Mm-Hm.
RICK NEWMAN: So this is only something we`ll see on electron cars again in the Chevy Bolt. You can do that if you want, but you can also operate it in normal mode.
VINITA NAIR: It`s a game changer for a long distance drive, too. Talk a little bit about the technology features that you saw. Was there anything that really stood out to you?
RICK NEWMAN: You know, the-- the innovations in the auto industry these days are not so much horsepower and sheet metal anymore.
ANTHONY MASON: Mm-Hm.
RICK NEWMAN: It`s-- it`s electronics, digital stuff. What we`re going to start to see a lot more of is things like we`re going to have internet hotspots in your car, a Wi-Fi hotspot so you can connect your gizmos, your kids` iPads, whatever to actually connect them to the car. General Motors is offering that on almost all of its-- almost all of its 2016 models. Apps, for your smartphone that let you control some of the things about your car. So you can lock and unlock it from your-- from your phone. You can find the car from your phone in a parking lot if you forgot where you parked. We`re going to see a lot more of this. So we`re going to see a lot more of operating your car from your phone.
VINITA NAIR: Hm.
RICK NEWMAN: A lot more integration between the technology. We know it`s already changing things in your smartphone--
VINITA NAIR: Mm-Hm.
RICK NEWMAN: --moving into the car. Moving into the car.
VINITA NAIR: Fewer and fewer places where -- I don`t have cell service that. Excuse is soon to be nonexistent.
RICK NEWMAN: Right.
VINITA NAIR: Newman, thank you so much.
RICK NEWMAN: Sure.
VINITA NAIR: Up next, a new home for a familiar street. Sesame Street begins its run on HBO. In just a few hours we`ll preview the changes in business behind the move.
You`re watching CBS THIS MORNING: SATURDAY.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
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