NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2020 Divisional Round Recap: Here comes Brady vs. Rodgers

Episode Date: January 18, 2021

A room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, Gregg Rosenthal and Chris Wesseling recap the divisional round games starting with Tom Brady and the Bucs potentially sending Drew Brees into retirement with their win over the Saints (3:20). The Cleveland Browns remarkable run came to an end against a Patrick Mahomes-less Chiefs (21:05) and the Buffalo Bills pull ahead over the Ravens (40:18). The Rams didn't seem to have a chance against a powerful Green Bay offense and Aaron Rodgers and the heroes talk about the chances of Jared Goff being on the Rams roster next season (59:47).Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. The Around the NFL podcast. Knows who has the Juice. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hans. I come to you from a virtual room that is filled.

Yes, thankfully filled with heroes. Greg Rosenthal, Mark Sessler, and the great, the iconic, the unstoppable Chris Wessling. What's up, boys? Hey, Dan. Yeah, listen to that. I like that, Hey, Dan, Wes. Well, hey, after that intro, you've got to bring a little bit. Yes, Wes, joining us.

as he did last week for the lead-off game, and we're incredibly thankful to have the whole gang of heroes together on divisional round weekend, pound for pound, the best weekend of football in the NFL. Maybe the games weren't classic this weekend, but every game was a lot of fun to talk about leading up to it and dissect after it is through, and that's what we're going to do on today's show.

And, of course, Mark Sessler, really, who's become one of the more famous Browns fans, I would say, in the country. I think you could actually say that at this point when you really break it down. It's you. Well, it's Drew Carey first, right? I guess. And then, like, I feel like it's kind of out of the mix right now. Now, Carrie's doing Price is right.

Let's be fair. Okay. That's a huge game show still. But number two is a bit of a dog fight. And Mark is obviously well known for his Browns fandom. and their season came to a conclusion today, but the dogs went down growling and fighting. And Mark, how are you feeling right now?

I know the audience wants to know. I'm doing fine. It's, you know, I think part of it is I'm 47 years old. So win or lose. I've got a lot of other things happening in life. I thought the better team won. And I think that helps when you lose a playoff game when there's not a lot of question about who the better team is.

but I'm proud of them and it's the start of something I hope if it's a flash in the pan and the window got shut then I'm annoyed but I don't know that that's the case right now that's true you never know you never know the big assumption and the mistake fans make all the time is oh we'll be back

there next year you never know however you know Mark and we talked about this privately after you know it feels like things are on the right path in Cleveland this seems like a nucleus that's in place we have time to get into all that when we talk that game We're going to go, like last week and super wildcard weekend,

and not super divisional round, though. See how that's when the bill comes due. If you build up wild card round as super, you make the divisional round look like hell. They've kind of got the whole best weekend and football thing. They should trademark that since everyone just says it anyways. And Sunday came through for us. It was looking a little shaky.

The Saturday games didn't quite live up to it. Sunday came through. But you're right. I mean, they got to think about that. I mean, this is what they've started. They've opened up Pandora's box. All right, so we'll go in reverse chronological order, starting with the game that just concluded at the Superdome.

It was the end of an era. Buccaneers defense, four-man front, dropping breeze, breeze dropping at the pass. So it's intercepted, picked off by Kevin White to the 40, shoves a guy on his way inside the 30, Devin White down the sideline, and the box and the ball. We're in business deep in Strait's territory. Decker off. WFUS. Yes, the Bucks collected three picks from Drew Brees and what was likely the veteran Cuby's final game. And the Tampa Bay Buccaneers advanced to the NFC title game with a 30 to 20 win over the Saints at the Superdome.

The Bucks are back in the NFL's version of the Final Four for the first time since their Super Bowl season of 2002. And Chris Wessling, this was a wonderful show. showcase for their defense and the man that intercepted that pass, the second interception, which really put the clamps on the Saints. Their young star linebacker, Devin White. Devin White was everywhere, and that's no, you know, that's no coincidence. He is often everywhere. He's not often in the right place at the right time, but he's one of those young

linebackers who has sideline to sideline range. He can get to anywhere. He's a playmaker. He sometimes makes mistakes. But in this game, he was everywhere. I saw you tweeted it, Dan. And it was a case of Drew Brees' generosity, really. The bucks were able to just sit at the sticks,

dare him to throw beyond 10 yards, and shrink the field like they're playing against Matt Castle. Castle, haven't heard his name. I mean, that's tough. That was a dirty word from West back in the days. But he's right. I mean, we're talking about the end of one of the great careers ever. And we've talked about it on this.

West is one of your famous lines that probably one of the trillion football books that you've devoured over the years. But actually, I think it was a quote from someone's father. I'm getting there. Careers don't end well. They rarely do. Maybe he's Tom Brady's dad. And that's what happened with Drew Brees here.

He turned 42 on Friday, and if this is the end, Greg, it ended in a sad way because you had the interceptions, yes, but just you saw the physical inability for him to really lead this offense with any level of aggression. It was sad because it ends not just the Drew Breeze era, but this last four years of the Saints, which is a really unique one where they were one of the five best teams, I think, in the regular season all four years. years. You know, they were record-wise, and they weren't able to really capitalize on it. And I think the Bucks defense, which has some flaws, this was the perfect matchup for them. Even though, I know they lost the last one 38 to 3, it was just, they're a team that you can beat over the top. They play this aggressive style. They don't have a great pass rush. It was a little better today. Guys like Devin White, who had a terrible game, I think he was like the LVP, the first time around, have grown up a little bit throughout the season.

And Breeze was the last quarterback that could take advantage of these aggressive corners. I mean, even after Carlton Davis left the game, and you've got journeymen in there, he couldn't push the ball. And I don't think you can be too shocked if you've watched Breeze since the moment he came back. And they had some better results offensively,

but they were coaching around him. I think losing Taysome Hill hurt, you know, even losing Latavius Murray maybe hurt a little bit, like on a day like this where you need the running game. They could have won this game. I mean, it was a weird game with turnovers. Like, if they played it 10 times, they would have won it sometimes. But you play with such a margin for error when you've got that big of a disadvantage at quarterback.

And I know it wasn't Brady's best game, but it was a big time disadvantage when you were matching up what Breeze can do and what Brady could do. I mean, just a quick shout out to Wes here because it's kind of like the day before you come down with a cold and you kind of can feel it at like two. o'clock the day before and like something's not totally right with me and i'm going to get you can feel it by that night that you're not feeling well and the cold's coming and that's how i feel like west diagnosed the um fading arm strength of drew breeze and someone tweeted and said you better talk about this tonight because he said this this past off season west you've been saying this for a long time i feel like you've seen little hints of it for a while and tonight looking at drew breeze his face staring at the Microsoft tablet or whatever it's called at the end of the game,

I really felt for him. I mean, you could just see this amazing career coming to an end. Well, it reminded me so much of last year's playoff loss to the Vikings, where the only way they could move the ball was for the backup quarterback. In that case, Taysam Hill to come in and hit a couple of shot plays down the field. And in this case, James Winston to hit the touchdown. Yeah. And I guess you don't do it to a legend, but I wondered if Sean Payton would pull Drew Brees at some point in the fourth quarter with your season on the line. I mean,

you owe it to the other 52 players as well. Yeah, that's a good call, Wes, because this was such an important season for the Saints. It was an all-in year for them. There's so many changes potentially on the horizon beyond just quarterback. This roster was built to, win in 2020, and that put Peyton in a very difficult position. I guess if I had to critique one thing about how Peyton called the game was, you know, Bravo on the trick play that led to the wide open, Treyquant Smith touchdown from James Winston. I could have used a couple more of those bad boys, empty out the playbook. It's something like you saw Josh McDaniels do with the Patriots in recent years

when their cupboard was bare and they needed to cook up some ways to score points. This might have been the game to just say, all right, I could either bench my quarterback, my legendary quarterback in his last game, or I could get weird. And he didn't do either. And you saw how it turned out. Well, I think losing Deonte Harris could have hamstrung them there. I wouldn't be super. He was like, had he played the whole game? Who knows how this would have turned out? Right. He was the, you know, it wasn't just a breeze that was coming off an injury. Michael Thomas, you know, he's not, you know, known as an explosive. receiver and I think that was diminished Harris is a guy you could have imagined maybe they had

some trick plays for it's like if that that that block in the back that that was early in the game on the Deonti Harris touchdown I mean that that was huge when it was only six nothing we did our sky hit Dan and I remember talking like I think the bucks had to be thrilled it was only six nothing at that point because it felt like the history of this matchup and the matchup advantage that the Saints had in certain ways look they did shut down Evans again. Antonio Brown gets hurt. He doesn't do anything. For a while, you know, they did a lot of the things that the Saints do.

They got pressure on Brady, but the Saints' offense couldn't take advantage. That's the crazy thing. If you give Drew Breeze this defense and running game, like almost any other time in his career, they're winning some games. He only won two games in his career in a row in the playoffs one time. It shows you how hard it is to win games, even when you do everything right. They put together this roster a couple of years too late. Michael Thomas shut out in this game.

Zero catches on four targets. I mean, who would have thought that? This whole thing, you know, these things get drilled into your head down the stretch of a season. And when they put Thomas and I are for the final three games of this regular season, it was, okay, we want to get this guy right to make our Super Bowl run. They get to the playoffs. Then with the season online, Mark, it doesn't even have a catch. No, and we did our end of third quarter head on Sky and mentioned,

that Antonio Brown, Chris Godwin, Mike Evans, and Mike Thomas combined, had 34 yards. So it was not what you spend all week predicting. And I thought that the Jared Cook catch and fumble was immense. I thought that I really got the bucks rolling because they had a short field and punched it in. I mean, it's like one of those games where these two teams, they just dislike each other. I know that the Saints and the Bucks haven't been, you know, the Falcons in the Saints, especially, you know, in some in the playoffs. But the nastiness, you know, Ryan Jensen and these guys just all, C.J. Gardner Johnson, who is, who I'm not sure he's ever been in a good mood for a day in his life, seemed annoyed the entire game, too.

And let's talk, Wes. I want to tee you up on this. Let's talk Tom Brady now. I know this wasn't obviously his greatest game ever, but something said by Joe Buck at the end of the telecast was just stunning to me when you think about how hard it is to get to championship Sunday, which is where the bucks are heading for the first time. since they won the Super Bowl, almost 20 years ago. Tom Brady is going to his 14th conference championship game. Fourteenth, the first 13, obviously, in New England. And what a unbelievable, in addition to being an all-time great quarterback and no one has more rings than him, the deft move to move to the NFC, move to this particular team, and now be in a position to get back to the Super Bowl

with a date against Aaron Rogers, of all people, in the NFC title game. I mean, there's just never been a career like this dude. No, we've said a number of times, the most amazing thing about his career is you could split it in half, you know, at 2010, and he'd have two Hall of Fame careers. That's just an unbelievable statement about a player. He could have two Hall of Fame careers,

14 conference championship games. Amazing. And I'll let Greg speak a little bit more about it because that's been his guy up close and personal. Well, I think what you saw tonight was, you know, it wasn't his best night, but there were a couple throws. The throw Godwin couldn't pull in for the touchdown before half.

The Tyler Johnson throw that Johnson made an unbelievable play on on third down, a back shoulder throw. I mean, he's got the arm strength. And I think his ability to adjust in games, and, you know, you have to give his coaches some credit with that, too. But, you know, I think it's more Brady than the coaches is unparalleled. If you keep, when they were stopping them over and over, eventually I just was like they can't stop them all game. And I think it was the running game that was a huge, huge part of that. And that's Brady, you know, at least get some of the credit there changing the plays and continuing to run.

And Aikman was all over it with Rojo and Leonard Fournette. To me, starting with the last drive in the second quarter, like he started just taking profits. Instead of going bombs away on third and short, which they did like four times and it was not working. They started getting those five and six yard gains. It was his old sort of game manager stuff. I mean, but the thing with Brady, I think that gets overlooked

and people would be like, okay, you know, he didn't really have that good a game. Brady's lucky. But he got them to this game to let the defense in running game gets. I mean, that's the thing is you like survive each week. You get them, you're going to carry him some weeks. Look at the bills. It's like their defense carried the show.

Like, that's what great quarterbacks do. They figure out how to get you to the next week. And they'll probably not get into the Super Bowl unless he puts up 30 or 40. And so next week is the week he's going to have to light it out. It was vintage, though. It really, if you've been following this guy's career, and I say this both in a positive way, and you could view it as a negative way, there were some balls that if he wasn't a more fortunate person, this game could be very different, didn't work out with some interceptions that were dropped.

or plays that were called back on review things of that nature. But at the same time, and I texted Keith Hanzas this in the fourth quarter, once it got to 2020, just like Tom Brady's been winning this exact type of game in January for literally two decades. And you just got to have a feeling that. Drew Brees has not. Well, yes, that's fair too. But Brady has done this for so long.

It didn't feel like it was a 43-year-old quarterback hanging on. It was just like, no, he's going to take this team where it needs to go. It wasn't, he wasn't the driving force behind this win, but he played his role as he always does. I mean, like the, like when he was missing throws to Gronk, like for a second and started feeling like, okay, maybe he's a little older. And they're both like well into the Gabbard zone, Breeze and Brady, you know, four to five yards per attempt, you know, two and a half quarters in the game.

But then Brady makes the plays late. And when I said, you know, people got in my mentions about, about like it's like the Brady's looking at his age like he's throwing the ball like a 50 year old it's like watch the games like that is the difference between him and rivers and breeze and and ben rothusberger his arm is awesome I mean he is throwing dimes out there week in week out I'm not saying he's exactly the same player but he if you protect him he his arm strength and even his foot feet look okay right now like you know how twitter works though you know how twitter works Greg it's just people wanted to get off their geyser bowl jokes and all that at the expense of actually

analyzing what was happening. Well, that will be their last comment to Greg, because he is a muter, and he's probably muted four or five hundred people. I mean, by the end of the game, we might be muted. That guy was muted. That guy was muted. Not a view of you. Tom Brady is like high-fiving the ref, or attempting to by the end of the game. So, I mean, it couldn't have been a different final image of these two quarterbacks. Wes, before you do go, I'm curious who you'd rather see in another Super Bowl. I'm guessing Rogers now that I ask the question. But, Oh, yeah, without question.

It's been Rogers all year from week one. Yeah, that makes sense. He's been playing quarterback, honestly, had a level to where you can almost count the number of mistakes he's made this year on one hand. And we're going to get to that. It's the first time really, geez, do you think about it with Aaron Rogers, we're going to get to it. But he's going to be a favorite.

They're a prohibited favorite, I think, going into this game against the Bucks, even though you saw great performance Tampa Bay defense. It feels like it's Green Bay's conference to win now. But you don't discount the Tom Brady team in January. Some of those Aaron Rogers' mistakes came against these bucks.

Right. That feels like five years ago. Yeah, I don't put too much into that game, but it added so much value for Brady going to the bucks too. I'm with you, Dan. I mean, I don't think it would have gone well in New England, and I'm enjoying watching him play like this more even than I expected. But doesn't it add so much value that you're getting this Brady-Breeze matchup in the playoffs, that you're getting this Brady-Rogers thing? It's like, it's like LeBron

going to the Western Conference, and it just makes the whole setup, I think, fresher and more exciting. I talked about it on the network show on Friday. This is kind of the end of the old guard for a lot of guys, Philip Rivers on the way out, Big Ben on the way out, one and done. Drew Breeze, obviously his career is now looking to be over. But then you have Tom Brady holding it down for the old guys and Aaron Rogers on his way to the Super Bowl potentially. Last thing before you go, Wes, I'm going to ask Greg a question and then you tell me your thoughts as well. Greg, no. Bill Belichick is watching this game.

No, no, you don't know what I'm going to ask. Bill Belichick is watching this game because the guy loves football. His one true love, well, Linda, he loves Linda. But his truest love, his deepest love, is the game of football. So he's watching the divisional round playoffs. Is he rooting for or against Tom Brady tonight? That's a tough one. Because his legacy and his ego is absolutely involved?

Is Belichick exposed? That's not what I was doing. Although it's fair too. I don't know. What kind of question? I don't know. It's a hard one. When you don't want to answer, please.

He keeps you, well, here's why. Because I think he keeps the public, including me, on so far on the outside that I have no idea what this man is truly. It's actually made you uncomfortable this question. That's how I know. I'm going to say he's rooting for Brady. I mean, he's not a breeze guy. What do you think?

What do you think? He is absolutely rooting for Brady. They have too much invested together. And they're both successful enough, big enough men that they can look beyond any differences that cause the breakup and appreciate what they had together for two decades. I have been doing this podcast. I've done 1,200 episodes with Greg. I've never seen him so happy as that reaction to Wes's take.

Because here, Wes gave, West giving the answer makes it like way more legitimate than if I had said that. And it ended up being perfect. I don't, Dan, I don't think you were expecting that as the outcome maybe, or were you? No, no, making Greg squirm is great. I'm not surprised exactly with Wes's answer. I don't agree with Wes's answer. But really how Greg reacted to Wes's answer, the whole thing was just a big W. Ultimately.

Wes, that's why you're the host. you've said it all you're the king and we love you love you guys too all right there you see you west thanks west get some rest after another MVP performance by the mailman we're just getting started uh let's now dig into uh the first sunday game and the last game sadly uh for mark's favorite team they snap it they're going for it they flood it right cut time he kill stays in bounds the same play that they Close the game out against New Orleans. They do it to Cleveland and Chad Hennie out of the bullpen.

Incredible job on a third and 14 scramble for 15. They called 13 and a half. Comes back on a roll to the right side, deaking Cleveland into thinking they were going to run the clock, and they find Tyreek Hill in the right flat. The Kansas City Chiefs are going to advance in the AFC playoffs. Mitch Holtis. Pumped up, as you'd expect, for WDAF, Andy Reid, big red, bigger onions.

With Patrick Mahomes in the locker room with a concussion, Andy Reid risked it all with a fourth and short pass attempt on journeyman Chad Henney. The reward in his coach's faith with a strike to Tyreek Hill to send the Chiefs back to the AFC championship game for the third straight year. Final score, Chiefs 22, Brown 17. at Arrowhead, and Mark, your boys from Cleveland, they nearly pulled it off. They fought, they battled back from 193, but it just wasn't meant to be. Yeah, I thought it was a case of almost student meets master in terms of Kevin Stefansky.

I think all year long regarded as an aggressive play caller or talented play caller who put the Browns in good situations. and Andy Reid, the master. I don't think the Stafansky won this matchup. There were too many just little mistakes for the Browns. And, you know, watching this thing, when they lost Jed Wills, their left tackle on like the first play out of the gate, that was concerning to me.

I don't know if that caused total problems, but there was a lot more pressure on Baker Mayfield this week than there was last week against Pittsburgh when there was essentially none. And it was just a little things, you know, that when watching this team all year, When they're flowing well and when they're in sync, their best players are doing things that Browns fans haven't watched players on that team do a long time. That wasn't the case today. I mean, they made a couple plays, but it were these uncharacteristic sort of back-to-back drops by Nick Chubb that I thought just killed them.

A couple moments where their wanting defense just couldn't get to the edge to shut down the Tyreek Hills of the world. And, you know, to Stefansky, there was, I thought a catch he should have challenged where they didn't get the flag out on time. And a catch, they shouldn't have challenged where I think they just didn't have a good look at it and they did and they lost that challenge. There were timeout, the timeout situation in the fourth quarter where Baker took was forced to take a time out because they were disorganized. I thought that it just, all those little moments served to really wreak havoc on them and their chances to win. And I'm not even talking about the biggest play of the game, which was the Donovan people. Jones, or sorry, the Richard Higgins catch and fumble that went out of the end zone, where to me it looked like a helmet-to-helmet hit.

There were a couple things happening there. I'll let you guys wait on that. That rule bugs me, but I think it bugs everyone. But that's the way it is. I think the better team won and the way that, how aggressive they were with Henney, it says a lot about the Chiefs, and it gives a lot, the Browns a lot to think about during a long off season. I mean, it says so much, because everything you say is right.

mark and yet it's third and fourteen there with you know a little over two and a half to go and Chad Henney's that quarterback and you're thinking well Baker's going to get the ball back with enough time to go try to win the game with a touchdown and for Andy Reid to call a pass on that play is is ballsyer to me than calling the fourth and one call where Henney throws it how about the call that he trusts Chad Henney to throw it on second and eight the play before that where they're running it well where Henny does take the sack that to me was almost like

you're getting crazy here you're showing a lack of faith in a run game that struggled all year but actually was good What about the deep shot on first and 20 at the 40 with a chance to get an all important field goal and drown the clock now that that too like it it was all

I don't think it was crazy I think it was Andy Reid doing what the chiefs do best which is throw the football and Henny earned some of that faith because other than that interception he played about as well as you could have wanted. There was a third and five where he made a great decision to keep that winning drive going or that final drive going to Damian Williams. There was another BB to Travis Kelsey over the middle that set up their field goal. I mean, Henney made some nice throws.

But man, Andy Reid, to me he's just like the ultimate pass first. I'm going to go down passing because the numbers say it. It's a passing league. And I don't care what you say. I'm going to keep Brian Westbrook on the field all the time in key situations. People have been killing Andy Reid about this for 20 years, and I feel like the NFL is kind of like starting to catch up with Andy Reid. The rest of the NFL now looks more like the Chiefs.

You say that what the Chiefs do best is throw the football. Yes, with Patrick Mahomes. But when Patrick Mahomes goes out of the game with that very strange, by the way, concussion, because we've sadly seen it, seen hundreds and hundreds of concussions over the years, enough to know the telltale signs, whether it's a helmet-to-helmet hit or a helmet smacking the turf. Mahomes' hit was strange, but he came up and he looked like he was in another universe and he was out of the game at the third quarter. So when you enter Chad Hennie, who before the week 17, meaningless start, hadn't played since 2014. It's crazy. And then you're putting the game

in his hands in that situation. I tweeted right before the third and long at the end of the game there. I said, Chiefs fans, everybody wants Andy not to throw it. Hand the ball off. And if you just play conservative, you can get the ball back to your defense, up five with the Browns,

hopefully inside their own 20, with no timeouts and 80 seconds to play. And yet he said, no, I'm going to go for it. It was onions at a level that rivals really anything. I'm going to show you a little bit of our grown huge onions that I can remember. And after the game, Honey Badger, who by the way played awesome when we're getting up to the Chief's performance from their stars on defense in a second. Here's what Honey Badger had to say about Andy Reid's play calling at the end.

Hey, man, that's why we love Big Red. You know, he's always on time. You know, he's like our spirit warrior out here, you know, behind the scenes. You know, he's always firing us up. But we always know he got one play in the table, you know? One play in the chamber. I love the point Romo made. Great job all day by Romo, too.

I mean... Gailed it. God, I love listening to him. You just learned so much. But the way that they, you know, approach that play on fourth and one and intentionally tried to look lackadaisical. I mean, that's practiced. That was part of it. They tried to look lackadaisical coming into it.

And I do believe what Romo said, where it was if they got a certain look, which is basically, you know, Tyreek having less. leverage on the outside to basically anyone. Like if that was the lineup, go do it. You know, Chad, and he's a professional. He's actually looked up. I know it's such a small sample size, but when he came in late in some of these blowouts, he looked good this year. Maybe that helped give a little confidence.

You know, Matt Moore coming in last year playing well. It's like it's not just Patrick Mahomes that makes this team go. And I think that should be a lesson for coaches because you do what got you there. and there were some offensive teams like the Titans and to a lesser extent the Steelers who, I mean, the Steelers didn't punt in that situation down to scores with 15 minutes left to the gate. It's like, I mean, the Steelers did punt in that situation.

It's crazy. Did you have a problem with Cleve on punting when they did with about five minutes to go? I didn't hate it. What was the setup again? It was, I believe, third and five or so. It was their own 40. It was not nine yards, nine yards.

It was fourth and nine. No, but I hated how slow. low that they spent almost four minutes to go 11 yards. And that was from the first second that seems so obvious. Like you're playing like your head. I know Chad Henney's on the other side. And I did think when they punted, I wonder if they would have punted if Mahomes was still playing. I would think no. Well, I don't think you could. Also, it had Mahomes been playing the whole time. It would be a different game, yes. Right. I mean, that's the thing. It's like, from a Cleveland side, you got to come out of this saying, there's no question the better team

one. It would have been a little suspicious, I think, going forward for the narrative of Cleveland 1 because Chad Henney was in there. I think this is a Browns team that fought. This Chiefs team, I mean, it was kind of my first experience watching the team I'm rooting for, deal with the Chiefs. And, like, I mean, Travis Kelsey was driving me nuts. Tyreek Hill was driving me absolutely crazy. And I know you guys, I love Romo too, all right? But when you're on the wrong end of a game, and Romo is like a giddy school girl at the end of the thing. I was like, get this guy off. I mean, Simone's like, I thought

you loved Tony Romo. I'm like, I do love Tony Romo's drive me nuts right now. Get him out of here. He does. Like, I don't want to hear about this guy. Because he's excited about football, but yeah, the chiefs make you excited. And he's a quarterback, and he said it twice, I think, in the first quarter alone. He's in love with Mahomes

as a quarterback, and he mentioned his instincts, specifically his ability. And I thought it was oh man, it was sad to see him first get hobbled with a toe injury. And you don't know what that is, if that's turf toe, which can be a debilitating injury for anyone.

And now he's got the head injury. So that's, you know, obviously a big subplot now as we head towards the AFC title game. Mahomes' availability. I would think I don't want to read too much into this and be the Twitter neurologist. But the fact that he was tweeting repeatedly after the game and

doing bits about Chad Henney on Twitter that maybe the is possible. I thought if you're bringing that kind of wit to Twitter, maybe you are somebody said he's a little young for dad jokes, but the point is that he wasn't, you know, curtains closed in a dark room, not knowing where he was. We'll see. Hopefully we, as much as we respect what Chad Henney did today, we don't need to see any more Chad Henney in our lives. Mark, did you have any other issues with, because I didn't, yeah, I would think this is a game I'd like to kind of go back and watch. I feel like Stefansky,

If he could do some things differently, he would. Nick Chubb did not have a good first half. He had those drops, couldn't get things going on the ground. And Cream Hunt wasn't in the game plan at all. That was on my radar a little bit. Did you have any issues with how he deployed some of his playmakers? I totally agree with you. My thought, you know, because this wasn't a game where I took extensive notes

just because I was like, I'm going to, and this could be over real soon. I want to just experience this. But my one thought, you know, throughout the game was that the Chief's defense, which was just nasty, I thought today. it needed to be, had a better plan for Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt than the Browns did. I mean, at least the way it played out in the wash. I mean, there was a couple, there was a pocket of about 10, 12 minutes where Chubb really got going and Hunt had a couple plays too.

But you'd have to say overall that, you know, I think they had like combined 12, 18 yards at halftime. There's games like that where they've not, they just not followed the script you'd expect, and it's not because they were smarter than the competition. And so it's a stepping stone, but they met the best team in the AFC, and I think maybe the Chiefs felt a little bit. I don't know, maybe we just put this on these teams. But it's like, oh, maybe the Rams can challenge the Packers.

And like, look at the Browns are frisky. Maybe it's like, and the Chiefs are kind of like, yeah, we haven't played in a while with our starters, but don't forget about us because we still can drop the hardest hammer in the league if we want to. Well, I think the Chiefs taking the early lead was significant. because, you know, the Browns do shorten games. That's a cliche, that's true. But when you shorten them and you're behind,

and they shorten them on both sides because they play a slow-paced defense that sort of asked the other team to go on these long drives, and they couldn't hold up in the red zone. So the Browns had three drives in the first half. They only had seven in the whole game, and you're right, you kind of look at the run-pass balance, and Baker ends up throwing 37 times,

and I thought Baker threw the ball great, but he averaged under six yards per attempt. so ultimately it wasn't a great day throw in the ball. Landry, I mean, he had seven catches for 20 yards. Hooper makes that one play finally, but they got a little out of balance, but it's partly because you're behind. I do think it was a missed opportunity, though. I'm with you, Mark, that the better team won. And I just don't think the Browns were going to win the Super Bowl with this defense. And I think that showed today. That said, when Matthew got the interception, and it's 193, and the Browns force a three and out, and they missed the field goal.

Like, the defense showed you something. The chief didn't score a touchdown the whole second half. And so the defense kind of did give them their offense a chance. They're entering the fourth quarter. You're only down five, and Mahomes is out. I mean, they had a chance here to win this game, at least. And I don't want to twist the knife, but on the other end of it, when it's 2217 and Henney throws that punt.

and Lamar Jackson pumped his fist because it's no longer the worst interception of the playoffs. It felt like it was, everything was aligned at that point. And I thought, I thought for sure, Baker Mayfield was going to lead him down the field there. And they don't, they, they move the ball methodically and then punt it away

and never get the ball back. And I just, before we move on, we should touch on the Richard Higgins play because it was 16-3, late in the second quarter. The Browns are getting the ball. on the other side of the half as well. And

Mayfield throws a strike to Higgins, who loses control of the ball just shy of the goal line, sputtered out of the end zone, and through the side of the end zone, with a brown, by the way, it should be noted, crashing in, ready to scoop the ball up, but it bounces

the wrong way. And it's a touchback. I know there was heat about they thought it was a dirty hit by the Chiefs, Daniel Sorensen, Dirty Dan, as he's known by some. I didn't see it quite that way, but I could understand why someone would see that as an illegal hit.

But mostly, I, again, not to belabor this, but this is such a bad rule. It's just got to be changed. It's way too aggressive a penalty on a team. And it costs the Browns in a big way. That could have been 1610 with the Browns having the ball to start the third quarter. And yet it wasn't.

I thought Bill Cower had a good suggestion. And maybe he's not the first person to suggest this, but that the penalty could say the offense, instead of the defense, getting the ball at the 20, the offense gets pushed back to the 20. And it's like, all right, look, it's a really steep penalty. And it would be like, it's rare. And yet you're, it shouldn't swing the game the way it does. And I'm not saying it's a dirty hit, but just it was a helmet to helmet hit. Right. It was a penalty. It wasn't dirty, but it was a penalty. Right. Just by the, by the, I think a lot of, I watch a lot of helmet to helmet stuff. I'm like, you try to teach, like, we get it.

You try to teach a defensive player soaring in to move his head. I mean, it seems ridiculous. You're going to get these penalties. But Sorensen, he's got a little bit of a history. That's what they called me. He dove. Different reasons. He dove.

I do want to give some, you mentioned Honeybadger. It occurred to me during this game because someone tweeted about it. And I was like, oh my gosh, that's right. Like, he, I think he, someday I think he might be a Hall of Famer. Like, he's got to keep, like, going through this. But doing this in key spots, man, he was all over the place. And they pay a few guys so much money. They're so top-heavy.

Their roster, Honey Badger is one of them. And, like, he earned that. And Chris Jones, I don't think he dominated today, but I thought he got pretty good pressure. And he made the two key plays that stopped that fourth quarter drive. And so it's like, well, that's why you pay him $25 million. And I do want to apologize. A lot of people in my Twitter mentions, I've been asking all playoff long. Austin Hooper, make a play.

Make a play off. My God, he made a play to keep their season. They could have been moving on because of that Austin Hooper play. So the Browns came close, but just the beginning, hopefully, Mark. Again, you can't make assumptions and just assume an organization is just going to continue on an upward trajectory. But history in all sports, all the great teams, almost always, and well, almost always is strong, but in many, many cases, there is that crushing playoff loss.

when the team's on the rise and then you grow and you build off that and then you're back in that spot the following year and you find a way to climb the hill hopefully that's where the browns are and mark this is more because we all love tony romo and we love football and it was an exciting end of the game this is you can feel free to take out your earpiece for this part robo's call with jim nance was excellent on the final play with chad hennie so i asked rickie to cut that as well let's listen in I hear Andy Reid really smart send everybody out there you got guts right you're trying to draw them off sides take a time out take it down let the clock click try and draw them off sides

they put Henny in the gun walk up pretend like you're going to go ahead and quarterback sneak it motion back try and draw them all sides and then take a time out you walk up there and say no play everybody don't jump there's no play just look at the body language

I can't take that There is a play. Hennie rolling out, throws it. Hell! And the Chiefs are going to the UFC championship game. Only Andy Reed gets a shotgun on the fourth of the next. And he's the ball. With the back, a quarterback.

There's no way. He shocked everybody. He's number one, Greg. That is impossible. I've never said that. He's my number one in the power. He does that stuff. I mean, can you see my point a little bit, though?

Yeah. In my house, I'm just like. Of course. He loves it. All I hear is Mark sucks, Mark sucks, Mark sucks. Like, that's all I'm listening to. But when I hear it, I think Andy Reid onions for days and days and days. Let's move on.

Lamar Jackson is going to try and get this in the end zone himself. Third and goal at the nine. For the snap, Lamar Jackson back to throw. Now it's Greg's lowest moment. Two yards deep in the end zone intercepted by Taryn Johnson. And he brings it out. And he's still on the run. He may go all the most.

way. He's at the ball to more 40. See, when your team goes two and 14, you can never get hurt. 10.5. Touchdown! Touchdown! Terran Johnson goes 102 yards with an end-zone interception. Touchdown Buffalo! John Murphy with a call, WGR. Yep, it's the biggest swing play in football, the end-zone interception that then goes back

all the way 100 yards to the house. Teran Johnson pulled it off, that 14-point play for the bills, the deciding play. in a 17-3 win over the Ravens and raucous, Orchard Park. It was just like 10,000 fans there, but they really announced their presence with authority in a big spot. Lamar Jackson was the man who threw that killer pick, and then he was forced out of the game on the next series with a head injury. A shotgun snap that went over his head.

He gets slammed down in the end zone. Tough situation. I hate to see it. That is the latest disappointment in his playoff career. Greg, Josh Allen has been the face. of Bill's glory this season, but it's the defense that got them to the AFG champion. Yeah, it was that play. That play in the injury, I mean, the drive leading up to it, which, you know, there's only two drives in the whole third quarter. The bills get that

first touchdown of the game to get to 10-3. And Lamar makes a, you know, bad read. It's a pick six. And that was it. It was like it's very, I would have liked to see what Lamar Jackson could have done down two touchdowns there. It, you know, definitely robbed us. Um, any chance of that. And this was a team that almost lost to the Colts because of bad snaps. Did luth to the Patriots because of bad snaps. And then the guy they brought in for the bad snap guy comes in

and he was having bad snaps all last night. There was three or four of them. It's disappointing. I mean, we had a weekend where Mahomes and Jackson get concussed. That said, like, it wasn't happening for the Ravens' offense. They had three points there

through three quarters. And they didn't really have a move to go to in terms of their outside running. I was so surprised they kept going with these condensed formations running up the middle and it just wasn't working. I thought they would spread them out and try to run. Didn't do that.

They obviously weren't able to throw the ball. Neither were the bills, frankly. I mean, the bills had 220 yards. They got out game by 100 plus again in a game. That was by far the worst game by the bill's offense all year. I think it was a great performance. performance by the Ravens defense. But the Bill's defense was better. And their quarterback didn't make the killer mistake. Lamar did. And that was it. I mean, if someone told Wink Bartendale,

Ravens defensive coordinator, you're going to allow 10 points to the Bill's offense. You'd be thinking, this will be a crushing. But the Ravens, and it's, you know, it was a different game than their last playoff loss. But the mistakes came from all over the place. And the win was a huge factor in Justin Tucker missing two field goals. But he also just missed them. They had a terrible shanked punt. J.K. Dobbins had a terrible drop at one point. There was a really costly personal foul. There was the Lamar Jackson interception. I don't know. I mean, it's like they didn't play a complete game. And I think Leslie Frazier, the Bill's defensive coordinator, I mean, these two coordinators both came in with great plans. And Leslie Frazier, who I, you know,

I don't think has gotten mentioned on our show once all year. And I get it because, you know, he's sort of like the head coach. It's not in the story there. Well, there wasn't much of a story. But, I mean, but when they needed, when they needed that defense to step up and play its best game of the year, and really to scheme really well against the Ravens, you understand what the Ravens do, diagnose it and execute. That's what the bill's defense did.

I mean, this was not, this was a below middle of the road performance by their offense. It was a costly performance by their offense until I think that the one little thing, and then I'll shut up. The one little thing is that the confidence that Josh Allen has and Stefan Diggs seems just to dig them out of so many holes in time because it took so long to get going, but he found him and Diggs started to make huge plays. And so it's like it was enough, it was enough on a night where it wouldn't have been it, the Ravens been less mistake prone.

Yeah, I didn't mean that in a negative way towards Leslie Frazier. It's just that when you've talked about the rise of the. the bills. It's been about Josh Allen. Entirely. And Brian Dable and what they've been able to do. And Frazier has flown under the radar. And like Wink Martindale, for instance, like you said, you know, if you ask him how he feels right now, I shut down the Tennessee Titans with their 2,000 yard rusher and the 40 touchdown quarterback. I completely shut down the Josh Allen bills had been unstoppable. I'm getting introduced to somebody else's head coach next week. I'm looking

forward to that. I'm picking out a new suit. That's not happening. But that's just the way it goes. Didn't get an interview. Yes. On the Raven side, and again, the dysfunctional offense. And you're right, Greg.

We were robbed as fans and Lamar Jackson was robbed of the chance to find a way to dig out of that hole and find a way to win that game. But there's also the chance, based on evidence we've seen, that they just weren't going to get it going

in that game. Part of the reason is because you saw Tyler Huntley in the running game get it going a little bit at the end and just the Bill's defense hasn't been shut down all year. That you're right. If you had just told me then, I was like, well, he wasn't coming back anyways. But after watching them move the ball with Huntley, then you're like,

oh, that would have been nice of a bar. They nearly got this game to 1710 with Huntley. And then all of a sudden you put the pressure back on the bills, but they couldn't punch it in. Here's what Hollywood Brown said today when talking about the offense. And this, I think, speaks to, well, Hollywood talks a lot. So you've got to keep that in mind. But also sometimes when players speak out to the media, it speaks to something going on in the locker room. Whenever you're the number one rushing offense and the 30-something passing team, that's not right.

That's not balanced. We got to find a way to balance our game, even with our great rushing attack. We got to be able to throw the ball and be able to move the ball through the air. And the truth is, Hollywood Brown is not part of the problem, but he's a great number two, I feel like. They need a number one wide receiver. Step up, though. Usually we give guys credit for playing their best in the playoffs, and he had two big games. That's true.

And not just the playoffs and like the whole stretch run when the Ravens got hot through the playoffs round was great. But they do need another receiver. And whether it's on Greg Roman or on Lamar Jackson, and really it's on both. They need to find a way to shed this image of a team that doesn't know how to pivot when things go sideways. Because look, it happened again now, Greg. I know he's your boy. And I know people, it happens on football Twitter. Excuses seem to get made for Lamar Jackson three years in a row.

You're asking questions about this offense at the end of their season. Absolutely. I think there might be time for John Harbaugh to make a bold change. And it's tough because Roman, I think, has done a good job. But sometimes, like, you make the change then before it goes really south. People a lot smarter than I, you know, that actually were on NFL teams, you know, really talk about, like, look, they brag about how they have 5,000 running plays. And there's a reason why they're so good in diversity.

It's like, that's what they spend their time on. Like, that takes away the time, especially in a year like this, where you are not building up your passing game to be as diverse and have as many levels to it. And I think that's what they're going to need ultimately, eventually. And it wasn't there. I mean, you do blanche a little bit at because you see it's like, okay, he threw for seven yards per 10.

Like, they weren't a great passing game last night by any means Jackson, but they made about the same amount of plays passing as the Bucks and the Saints. and the bills and like all these other teams, but they are too one-dimensional. Hollywood Brown is right. I mean, if you're that easy to self-scout or to scout, that's a problem. The bills were awfully confident coming into this game,

and they did a great job shutting Lamar on the ground. That was really the key for the second straight time. They did it a year ago, too. It does seem like certain teams come in on defense, feeling extremely confident about stopping Lamar Jackson and this team at times. And, you know, another off-season. season in another year, is this offense going to grow and going to continue to trick people?

Change it. Do it up. You have to. Do a total change. Willie Sneed said it was a wake-up call for Lamar Jackson. They're very close friends. And he was just like, I think this game served as that for him. So I don't think he escapes without critique. It's, you know, maybe just by the nature of their offense, he's given a little more bandwidth than others. But it seems that way sometimes. After this latest disappointment, it's the, I feel. like what we're going to be talking about is change the offense, fix it, make it more explosive, get better playmakers, change up the scheme a little bit. So Lamar does have that cover. If they do do that, and then he continues to struggle on the stage in January, there's going to

be no one else to blame, but Lamar Jackson, I'm just saying. In this game, though, it really was that one, it's crazy that it's that one play because they had such a similar drive. But that's what the playoffs is so many times. It comes down to that. Absolutely. But like the bills get down in the red zone. They run it in there quickly. And the Lamar gets the third down and he makes a bad throw there, makes a bad read. And suddenly, and it happens to be returned. And then the game is over. He's also knocked out by concussion, which we mentioned. But it's like he did he, what if, what if he had been in at the end and change this? Tucker's got to hit those kicks. Like, you know, there's just a little, there's a little bit of everything that happens in these playoff games.

That's why we love the playoffs is we end up, like, dissecting. every little thing. And what is that game like, you know, if they don't make some of the mental errors, some of which we're absolutely on Lamar, too. Thanks for bringing it up. Greg, let's head into the kicker club.

I'm always surprised, I have to say, legitimately on Twitter. This club is a mess right now. My mentions, people really are interested in the kicker club and what's happening and who has status and who's going in and out. Check it out right now. Listen to this place.

It's the upside down. When Justin Tucker puts two, two off the uprights. People are saying, kick Justin Tucker out of the kicker. Hell no, he's my co-owner of the place. I mean, that is the greatest kicker ever. But that just speaks to the strange, strange vibe around the Ravens in that game. Eerie, eerie stuff in the kicker club.

Windy. Was windy. Right. Do you ever have like the backyard, sort of courtyard secret parties at the Kickers Club where the wind is gusting like 50 miles an hour? That's sort of the scenario that Tucker found himself in. I know. It actually does, it did cross my mind after the second missed kick is like, is Justin Tucker my favorite player in the NFL?

Because I was legitimately hurting. Definitely. I mean, definitely of the non-Jets. And I don't even know who's your favorite jet right now. Because of the Jets being so, you know, terrible. I don't, I mean, I love San Darnal and I wanted to succeed. But I think Justin Tucker is like in terms of star players, like who do I root for? It's a kicker, I think.

Anyway, so weird stuff. We should give the Bills fans a little more love and the Bills too. I do feel like we've gotten negative. It was a weird game. It was a great defensive performance. Like McDermott built up this defense from 2017 on and this is what I think he's made his money doing and Frasier and Brandon Bean.

And those guys they drafted all came through with huge performances. So that is how you win a Super Bowl is like winning it different ways. Like the first game you give up 475 yards and you're like all pro type quarterback wins the game by himself for you. The next game, the defense goes and wins it. How are you going to win the next one? Like, that is how you get through four rounds.

And Milano and Jerry Hughes, who's been there forever. And Edmonds and Trey White had a good game. And the safeties, like, they stepped up and won the game. And so that's a credit. I know Bill's fans, they don't care how they're going to win the game. They are loving this game. I will say that is glass half full. The glass half empty look is that they've won two playoff games.

and you, you know, either game could have gone the other way because they out-gained by like a combined 200 yards in the two games. So are they vulnerable to be picked off on Sunday, this upcoming Sunday by the Chiefs, because they're not playing at that same level anymore they were at the end of the regular season? Or is it just the matter of, and I'm probably more on this side of things, the competition shoots through the roof in January and you're the big dog that everybody's gunning for is the home playoff team, and those are hard games to win, and they've found a way to beat two very good teams in the Colts and Ravens. There is a little part of me, and the Chiefs fans are some of the best in the world, but I would have loved to see an AFC title game in Buffalo.

The amount of noise they made when those kicks went sideways by Justin Tucker, I don't know it's because you're used to no fans and suddenly you have 10,000, but everyone there was like, it sounds like seven earthquakes are occurring here, and that's the Bills fandom, and they'll get talked about a lot this week as they should. All right. There you go. So a Bills-Browns-A-FC title game would have been nice, Mark.

Well, I'm saying that more as like the Bills' home crowd. I'm not coming in the back door with that. But imagine that. It really would have been nice, though. It would have been wild. If there was a scenario where either the Browns fans or the Bills fans were getting ready for a Super Bowl. But also look at it this way, Mark.

How about this? tough loss, but such a sad, strange year in this country and this world, when the Browns get over the hump, you want to have that true vibe or the stadiums packed all season and maybe you have a home game in the AFC title game and you see like Baker and, you know, Jarvis and maybe even Odell and Miles going around the Concourse slapping five. and it's not this strange, speaking, upside-down world we live in. But it has been nice, I'd say, to get some fans in these stadiums. Hopefully it's in a safe way, and these aren't people getting sick from going to these games. But to get the 10, 15,000 people in there has made a difference in the postseason. I am with you, and I would imagine that's actually what Cleveland's plan was. Let's slow play this and get back there next year when the fans are in the stadium, yes.

All right, our final game was the first game played early Saturday. Rogers takes the handoff, looks to throw. Offs it. Down the middle. Lassard's got it. And he's gone. He is gone. Touchdown. The Packers with a dagger. 31 to 18. Alan Lassard, 58 yards. Man, that's Wayne Larravey, WTMJ. The Packers' offense is just, you know, impossible. Aaron Jones and Jamal Williams combined to go over 160 yards with a touchdown. Aaron Rogers, was his masterful self. He had three touchdowns.

And the Packers kind of cruised to a 32-18 win over the Rams at Lambo. Green Bay punches at stake into the NFC title game for the second straight year, where they will host the Bucks next Sunday. Yes, Aaron Rogers against Tom Brady. How you like that for the right to go to the Super Bowl mark? The Green Bay offense, which rolled up nearly 500 yards against the Stout Rams defense, it can be a beautiful thing. to watch. I enjoyed this game a lot more than I thought I would because of that exact factor

that there's something about the Packers when they are clicking the way that they are. And I thought that West just spoke perfectly about Aaron Rogers in his season, that you could count his gaffs on one or two hands. You knew early on that this was going to take something dynamic from the Rams on offense to keep up. And nothing about the Rams offense suggested that was the case. And you throw in the fact that Aaron Donald just, you know, limited snaps, you know, in a lot of pain, was not himself, ended the game shedding some tears. There's the play where Devante Adams just got the best of Jail and Ramsey. The Rams this year at this time are built around that. They're built around that and they're built around Brandon Staley cooking up defenses, defensive schemes.

And Brandon Staley is now going to the Los Angeles Chargers. So a lot's changing as we speak with that team. But, you know, I, like, you know, Cam Acres, amazing effort. Lost in that is just that there are too many, you know, too much pressure on golf. It got thrown to the turf so many times. And it just, at no point after about a quarter ended, I thought this game was out of question. It was just so Green Bay is too powerful.

Right. The Rams, kind of like the Browns, at least before Mahomes, you know, left. felt like they were the inferior team and actually showed some of the reason they're in this spot and their fighting spirit to even be competitive because I think if you played that game 10 times with Aaron Donald

not at 100% and no Cooper Cup I don't know how many of the Rams are that competitive I mean I just wasn't going to happen I was still surprised to see how easily they went through the Rams defense how consistently they did this is a defense that didn't give up more than 400 yards yards one time all season. They gave up 485 and it was only in like eight or nine drives.

This was another game that was kind of short in the game. Like golf did everything he could and it didn't matter. I think why Wes, you know, one of the reasons he loves riders so much this year, it's such a combination of, you know, his athleticism and everything we've always loved about him and his, you know, mental side of things. It's kind of easy. Guys are either open or he's just making decisions. Like I just, you've never seen guys this open for. for Aaron Rogers, and he said it in the post game. Like, they missed a couple. Even though they only had eight or nine drives,

they really could have had two more touchdowns in this game, one of which turned into a field. Like, they could have put up 40 on the number one defense in the league. And I know it didn't play out this way all weekend, but I'll take great offense over great defense any day. I thought about that, you saying that throughout the months, it just came to mind. And golf played pretty well in this game, I mean, statistically.

It's kind of a bummer. When you look at it this weekend, what came out of it, when you had Patrick Holmes going out of a game we were all pumped to watch with the concussion. Lamar Jackson essentially takes the air. The air is taken out of the balloon with his concussion when that game was 173. And, you know, Cooper Cups one thing. That's a big loss to their offense.

But you take Aaron Donald and put him in such a compromised state in that game. He's coming in and out of the game, obviously struggling with the rib injury. crying after the game as the clock ticks down to zero is because I think, you know, don't want to play psychologist here, but you get the vibe that like he knew to get this team past the Packers into the Super Bowl, they needed him to deliver the type of performance that's that he's been doing his whole career. It's going to put him in the Hall of Fame, and he physically could not do it. And that had to be so deeply frustrating on top of just the feelings of knowing that your

season is now over. And the other thing to take away from the game and some kind of. that have come out of Los Angeles since the loss make me think about it even more is so yeah Los Angeles defense which was great all year didn't have what it took to hang with Aaron Rogers

in this game without Aaron Donald okay now in the past with the Sean McVeigh offense all is not lost because it's okay so the defense isn't going to carry us we're going to score points and we're going to get in a shootout but at no point did you feel like the Rams had that ability in them and I would guess

and you get the vibe Sean McVe he's sick of that. He's like, I'm Sean McVeigh. I should be able to get into a shootout if need be. And here are some comments McVeigh made right after the game when I asked about Jared Goff and the future. He said, yes, Jared Goffs are quarterback right now. And then he was, had a Zoom conference the day after the game and talked about the future again at quarterback. Everything's being evaluated. I'm not ready to make any sort of statements with regards to anybody, you know, starting position or not, we're going to have a level of competition at everything that we do. And then he was asked, would Goughby on the roster in

2021? We're in a situation that we're in evaluation mode. You know, all those things are things that, you know, we're moving forward. We're looking forward. And I can't, you know, answer any of those questions until, like I said, I take a step back and you evaluate everything that is in the best interest of the ramps. Here's the translation to me, Greg, and tell me if I'm wrong because I know you're very good at translating coach speak. I'm sick of this. I am sick of this and I want to be able to run an offense that can keep pace with the way the league is going right now and having Jared Goff behind center isn't going to do that. Yeah. Translation is like, we're going to try. We're going to try to replace Goff. I don't know that we can. I don't

know how it's going to look exactly. I mean, Sean McVeigh is very intentional in everything he does and everything he says. He's probably sick of scene, you know, on the other side, Like, you know, his guy that, he probably thinks he's a better coach than scheming up open receivers for a Hall of Fame Aaron Rogers quarterback. The contract is tricky, but anyone in Goff's corner, and there are a few in the media. There are? If there are, please tell me who they are,

because I have not seen any of them this season. You know, there are. Field reporter Melanie Goff? I'm not even going to go there. My point is that they made it out like the people were making. making a bigger deal out of this whole like Goff and Wolford and everything else thing than then was warranted because of Goff's injury. And I think McVeigh's comments show that it was totally warranted.

And that'll be a huge part of their offseason. Yeah, tough way to go into it, losing Staley to the Chargers, as Mark mentioned. He is the new head coach. Kind of kind of interesting to steal the guy in the building. There's a little bit of a sneaky big brother, little brother rivalry there, I think, behind the scenes. I mean, he doesn't have to, like, move homes. His kids can stay in the same schools. I do wonder a little bit of these playoff games because, you know, we are all,

the whole world is watching one game, and the result is so paramount. Like, if a game like this happens in week 11, does everyone come out of it thinking, like, we're going to reboot our offense, we're going to, we're Baltimore, we're changing our offense, we're Seattle, we're going to run a ton more, we're going to dump this quarterback and that quarterback. I mean, I know it's also just the end of the season, but, like, I feel like there's so under the microscope that it creates a larger-than-life sort of decision-making process for some of these coaches.

Well, with Gophic, Kate was coming for about six weeks. That was the thing, or six or eight weeks. So that's with him, in McVeigh, at least. We're going to dig in deep on the Brandon Staley hire by the Chargers and, of course, Robert Sala, Sala, Sala, Sala, going to the Jets and Arthur Smith, going on the Falcons. We'll dig into that in our next show on Tuesday and anything else that happens around the NFL as we do just a heads up but yeah that that's the Rams are in an interesting place now because they got to replace it. It's funny with I just said I'm going to we're going to talk about it Tuesday but I

have to say it because it Brandon Staley it almost now is an advantage to not have experience like just put one good year on tape and then they're going to get behind you it's the Sean McVe model like we're willing to gamble that you are the the future of the league rather than you have to show it multiple years. It's kind of funny the way things are. Like if you're wink, Martindale and Leslie Frazier, you're thinking, wait a minute, they just hired that guy? He's been doing this for five months? He just, they just hired the guy whose defense gave up, and this is kind of one of these silly stats, but for the first time in playoff history, a team had 475 yards total, 175 yards rushing zero sacks, zero turnover.

So like about as efficient an offense that has ever existed in the postseason is what the Packers just did to the Rams. That's like when Matt Patricia got the lion's job after the Eagles Super Bowl win. That's what I kind of felt about Arthur Smith. And it feels a little unfair, but when I rewatch that game and man, the Ravens had their number, we should give Packers fans a little cheese to Niblawn, by the way. They had a lot of nice things. They could have won this game by like 40.

Like Rashon Gary and Kenny Clark stepping up big, Aaron Jones had a nice game. And then just like Rogers, how like calm he was when he just like yells to Alan Lazzar. on that touchdown, just like, hey, Alan, and then throws him like a 60-yard touchdown. He's just, like, chilling in the end zone before he throws, like, a 30-yard thing. And while most quarterbacks would be freaking out, taking his safety, is pretty awesome. He's so, yeah, he's so unique. I don't think we'll ever have another quarterback or player in the NFL like Rogers to have his abilities, but also he's such an interesting personality, and you're watching him in these interviews,

or are you watching them on the field? they had did a nice job catching him, just grinning under center. He's just completely, it actually gets me a little bit mad that someone could be that physically talented and that smart. The guy's going to be hosting Jeopardy down the road in the near future. He's just such a unique character. And for him to be playing at this level and this Packers team, which is actually now going to go into this game as a favorite, like I said earlier, I assume.

They should get back to the Super Bowl. And if they do, it's Rogers' first trip back in 10 years. So he's overdue, and it might be his best chance to get back to the Super Bowl. It is. This first one, first one at home, right? Certainly the first one at home since then. I'm trying to think. All right.

Any other thoughts about this game, gentlemen? I'm looking to update you on the situation for next week in terms of, they are four-point favorites, by the way. They are. So nothing crazy. But that's about right. Yeah. Yeah. That's about right.

Maybe four and a half. I'd lay a little more wood. I love their chances against Tampa Bay. I'd lay a little more oak there, Greg, personally. I think I'm... Just the touch. You know, as I realize watching the Browns game, I just want to pick the games of what I want to happen.

I don't like Rudy against what I want, because I did want the Browns to win, but, you know, had the whole lock situation. I don't like these conflicting things. So I think I know I'm going to be wanting Tom Brady to win another game, and so I'll probably just pick them to win. Okay. There's a tease. There's a tease for you. And Mark, just like you did, we did a lot of work with Sky Sports overseas this weekend and last weekend as well. It's been a lot of fun with Neil Reynolds and Jeff Reimbold and Sean Gale and Brian Maldinger. Amazing, yeah. It's been a lot of fun. Leslie Fraser's teammate on the 85 Bears, Sean Gale. How about that?

That's true. Patrick Crowley. a producer over there, Alex Mason. It's, it's been a great relationship we've had with that whole gang there. And the fact that you mark right after the Browns game, seconds after, you went on Sky Sports Live, comported yourself professionally, and did the same thing here today. I just, I tip my cap to you, sir. Well, thank you. I mean, part of me is like we, I would do shows when they cap to know in 16 seasons. So I'm not saying this is, it's, you know, it's different levels of annoyance, but I've actually really enjoyed these past two weeks doing this guy with you guys and having the chance to have Wes on. The Browns are just part of it. There's a lot of

other parts, and it's like another thing. And I think we all hear from our listeners in so many different ways. I have never experienced anything like all the people reaching out with, you know, wishing you well over a game or not. There's a couple A-holes in there, but I think they're actually not from our, they're not from our podcast. Listen, you're pushing Drew Carey. you're pushing them i don't know if i really want that as an identity because i think like the same thing that's also happening is like all the big wigs and the company like oh yeah he's that browns fan guy i don't put it he's he doesn't know how to talk about anything else it's like yeah i might kind of you know it's like nick shook's like i'm super logical guy like that might

be the way to go here i mean who cecila the aging fan boy it's a hideous identity so it's uh you know i'm gonna i'm gonna use the next couple months to get away from that the fans love you, Mark. We love you. And the listeners, including one named Jimmy from Toronto, he got ahead of it a little bit just in the off chance that things didn't go well for the Browns. We've been playing the Cleveland Browns fight song from when they re-entered the league. So figured a good way to close out today's show is to listen to Jimmy from Toronto's version, cover version of that very song. What's the song called again?

Well, here we go again. Here we go again. Not actually true as of tomorrow, but yeah. Yeah, this is a stripped down version to reflect the events of today. And before we play that, yes, thank you to Chris Wessling for joining us. Ricky Hollywood behind the virtual glass. We'll be back Tuesday with another show and a full big show. A lot to talk about everything in the news, including Sala, Sala, Sala.

So make sure you come back for that. And Cleveland Browns rising, rising, taking that next step this time next year. We see it. But for now, the season comes to an end. We'll see you on Tuesday. So here we go again. It's the Cleveland Browns. It's first in ten.

So get. Lock your feet and let the games again until Tuesday. All right. Hey, On Move the Six, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies

to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael F. Florio, and together we host the NFL fantasy football podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season?

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