NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Super Wild Card Weekend Recap - The Browns is the Browns

Episode Date: January 11, 2021

A room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Marc Sessler and Christ Wesseling recap every game from SUPER wild card weekend starting with, of course, the Cleveland Browns huge win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. Marc has his moment. The Bears played sorta' like we expected them to against the Saints but the Nickelodeon telecast was SO fun! (26:51) Lamar Jackson gets his first playoff win against the Titans (29:30) and the Ravens run game was unmatched even with a superstar like Derrick Henry on the other side. Tom Brady is winning playoff games and not in New England. TBxTB and the Bucs defeated the Washington Football team in a great Saturday night showdown against an electrifying Tyler Heinicke (41:25). The Rams defense shredded Russ and the rest of the Seattle Seahawks. (48:50) The Buffalo Bills won a playoff game! The Colts put up a great fight but couldn't pull it off in the last few seconds (59:13).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 is waiting for Cessler to finish his rant. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. Dan Hansis, I come to you from a virtual room that is filled with heroes. Mark Sessler, Greg Rosenthal, and Chris Wessling. What's up, boys?

Hey, Dan. Hey, buddy, Chris Wesley. You know, how about this? Wes, Wes said, I'm going to pick one game to come on and make a came on the Sunday show today. And if you're going to come on for one game, Wes, how about this? Browns in a playoff game, not just appearing in a game, Mark Sessler, winning a playoff game, not just against any team, but against the Pittsburgh Steelers. How you feel it, buddy?

That aged me, and yet it also de-aged me at the same time. I don't know how that's possible, and Wes, I really thank you for coming on because I know, you know, we've been through a lot regarding the Cleveland Browns on our show and our own conversations. So I, you know, if it is like the game ended four minutes ago, for me to come on and offer tangible, rational thoughts will be a challenge I will attempt to. I'm just beginning to realize what has happened. I can't imagine what percentage of our listenership thought of Mark when it was about three minutes left in the first quarter. Browns are already had two interceptions of Big Ben.

They scored on the miss snap over Big Ben's head, up 21 to nothing, about to go up 28 to nothing. The most points ever scored in a postseason game in the first quarter. And Chris Collinsworth says, I don't think there's a single person in Cleveland who feels comfortable right now. And it was very prescient by Mr. Collinsworth because things did get interesting and we're going to get

to all of that including all the other games in Super Wild Card weekend, six in total three Saturday, three Sunday, we're going to cover them all one by one and we'll go in reverse chronological order which yes takes us

to Heinz Field the site of a massacre and the snap goes high over the head of big Ben, all the way back to the two to the one, and the Browns have it in the end zone, and they dive on the ball and recover it for a touchdown. Carl Joseph's got it in the end zone, a touchdown. Not a bad start. Six-nothing Brown.

Not a bad start. That was great. Browns Radio Network with the call. The Browns scored 28 unanswered points in the first quarter. White knuckled their way through the inevitable Steelers' comeback, then got big plays from their best players. close out, a 45 to, excuse me, a 48 to 37 win over the hated Pittsburgh Steelers. The biggest win for this organization since its 1999 reboot, by far.

Mark, you've waited a long time for this moment. How does it feel to watch your Browns beat the Steelers in fantastic fashion? it feels um i don't know it's uh the one thing i'd say about the cleveland fan base and i really felt this over the course of this week um because you knew it was it was win or lose and uh it was fans interacting with like ernest biner and eric metcalf and bernie cosar and uh players of old and um butch davis chiming in and uh joe thomas and andrew harris Hawkins, that so many people, I feel like over the years, have wanted to make the Cleveland Browns a fun experience, have tried. Players have gone there and toiled and to no results,

no playoff results. And the fans have been through utter hell. And I certainly, you know, I think highly of other fan bases that go through the same thing and they show the same loyalty. And it's settling in for me, I'm just one person that roots for this team. But I, you know, I knew that I never wanted to walk away from them, and I didn't know if there would ever be a reward, and I don't know as an adult that it could ever really, would it be the same as the seventh or eighth grade version of me that lived and died so hard by this team?

It cracked through a little bit. It did. I love it, too, and it's not the same as maybe when you were seventh and eighth grade, but I just looking at you right now, I mean, Mark is being me. The dichotomy right now between Mark's face at this moment and like it oozing out and the look on Mark's face at the end of the third quarter when he was conscripted by our jobs at Sky Sports to come on, happen to be me and Mark in the rotation. Although they were definitely going to have Mark in the rotation. They weren't going to miss that opportunity. And at that point, it was fourth down for the Steelers.

They had already, you know, cut the lead, I think, to 12. It's at midfield. And Mark, you know, handled it all very professionally when our friend Neil Reynolds goes to him, you know, just trying to poke. How are you feeling right now, Mark? It's like, please, you know, unpack your pain and anxiety for all of us. And Mark kind of white-knuckled through it. But, you know, he took some shots at people who were pre-bature celebrating and he set his confidence level was at about one in 100, and you could feel the anxiety and everything

building up to that moment. And it's great to look back to it because that was a turning point. Right after that, Mike Tomlin, you know, punted. Late Christmas gift for Sessler and all the Browns fans there. There been some weird, yeah, there been some weird punts this weekend and that that might have been at the height of it. And Greg, you said put it on Nick Chubb and soon after Nick Chubb scored and I think that's the first moment that I started to feel like even my own pessimism and anxiety in 20, 30 plus years of fandom might not be enough to get in the way and, you know, if anything, the Sky Sports crew are total allies and like so I, you know, I was, it was an, I didn't want to expose my total

the real me, which is like I don't feel positive until like the final whistle of these games. Not a great time to be broadcasting myself to the United Kingdom, but it was like five in the morning there, so probably 12 people saw it. Anyways, like, it's a totally surreal experience. So, yeah, we did a bunch of stuff with Sky Sports this weekend, and I was doing the hit with Mark after the first quarter when it was 28-0. And I get, maybe Mark was taking shots at me at the end of the third quarter. No, no, no, no. I decided, I declared it over. I mean, 28-0. If they would have ever, ever blown that game, that would been maybe the end of the Browns. I don't know what would

have happened. Certainly the end of Mark Sessler, to the point where I was texting Greg in a nervous manner, like, I don't know what we're going to do with the podcast if something bad happens here. Because, Wes, I know you're watching the game as well, and you're noticing the same thing everybody else is. You know, it's 28-0, and it's 28-7. And then it's 35-7, 35-10, 35-16. 35, 22, and all of a sudden it's like, okay, what's going on here?

Did you ever have a doubt, West, or did it always feel like it was in the bag for Cleveland? I had doubts. I did. Just because of who the Steelers are, what their DNA is, and who the Browns are and what their DNA is through the years, it's like the little brother, big brother thing. And I think you tip your cap to Alex Van Pelt, who's not the regular play caller, and who kept passing the ball, and they kept scoring to answer the Steelers' scores. Tip your cap to Baker Mayfield, who came through on those passes, and Nick Chubb, who is a difference maker.

Like, you know, I think Greg said it well. Put it on Nick Chubb because all season long, no matter what you think about Baker or O'Dell or Kevin's Tafansky, when you play the Cleveland Browns, you have to deal with Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt. That is a championship pack field. One is a rushing champion as rookie year. The other might be the top one or two best running backs in the NFL. And you have to deal with them every time you play the Browns.

Cessler, do you want to hear the Jim Donovan, Doug Deacon call of the Nick Chub, 40-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter? Yeah, I would love to. All right. Let's hear that. Mark looks post-coid us. On second and ten, he's back to throw. We've got a Brits coming in.

Screen pass, right side. Here comes Chubb. 35, 30, 25, 20. He's going. He's going. He's gone. Nick Chub is in. Touchdown.

Oh, great job. Great play call right there. There you go, Mark. I'm happy for Jim. Imagine, you know, I'm one who is occasionally complained about long NFL Sundays, and we've seen a few, but, I mean, Donovan, please. I mean, hey, how often is he featured on our show? because he's typically, you know, broadcasting an L, so this is quite different for him.

And on the Pittsburgh side of things, obviously a terrible loss. The fact, I mean, the fact, just the way it started, for those of us that were lucky enough to be at the game and everyone else who watched the famous Seahawks Broncos Super Bowl where the first snap of the game went over, Peyton Manning's head for a safety, and that set the tone for a blowout victory for the Seahawks. This was like that, but worse, because somehow, It goes over Big Ben's head, pounce he fires it over his head, and then it gets recovered by the Browns for a touchdown,

and just the avalanche of points. But even after Pittsburgh got things stabilized, and bad job by everybody on the offensive side, Ben Rafflesberger, despite throwing for 500 yards, had four interceptions in this game, including some truly wretched picks when the game was hanging in the balance. But you have to put it on the defense a little bit, too, Wes, I thought, because there were times when, yes,

they strung together a couple stops to get the game. close, but when they had a chance to really squeeze the Browns in the second half and really put the pressure on and give the Steelers' offense a chance to steal this game, they never could do it. And this was supposed to be one of the best defenses, if not the best defense in football. Well, you know, Collinsworth pointed to some miscommunications because of the injuries they've had there, but still hit T.J. Watt. They still had Cameron Hayward. They still had Stefan to it. They still had all these great players on their defense. There's no. excuse for for kind of laying over time and time again when when the offense wants to get back

in the game and you can't get a stop right i i give so much credit though to defansky and what you know he's installed i think you only win by adjusting your game plan week to week it's very much a patriots thing and like like everyone does it but they came out with a totally different game plan than they did a week ago i mean baker next gen stats had some good stuff about how he was throwing the ball faster than he did the entire season today. And so that's partly why Van Pelt stayed so aggressive. While Mike Tomlin is punting on a fourth and one, if that's anyone else, I mean, he was the first coach to punt the ball in that scenario, which is over the 40-yard line and down

by at least 10 points on a fourth and one in a decade. And the last person to do it was playing a meaningless week 17 game. Before that, it was 15 years. It was crazy. Whereas Van Pelt took that punt, and he's calling passes. While a lot of people on Twitter, and SkySphere was Neil's question to me also in that break, it was like, why aren't they just, you know, pounding running the ball? Because they know who they are?

They're the Cleveland Browns. They're an offensive team. And, you know, what was working tonight is those short passes. And they did that. They're adjusting week to week. They changed their game plans, and they do it based on their opponent. And they're smart, and they went for it. And you mentioned, like, people got to deal with Chubb and Hunt West.

I'd throw Jarvis Landry in that mix, man. I mean, every game when there's a big play to be made, whether it was the touchdown early to set the tone or the third and five where Baker absolutely needed someone and things are falling apart. Jarvis Landry makes a play. That guy's a dog. Week after week.

The Steelers are the first team since 2015 to punt when down at least 28 from inside their opponent's 40-yard line. There were 11 such punts. That wasn't not even the one I was mentioning. There were 11 such punts in the last 20 seasons prior to Sunday night and none happened in the first half. So like, you know what? I said you get on Big Ben for four picks

and Markey's pouncy for firing that ball over his head and the running game for being stuck in mud as usual. And the defense were not getting to stop when it counts. But hey, Mike Tomlin too. It was just a wretched night for the Steelers, a dark night for that organization that now has to figure out where they are going forward. We have plenty of time to talk about where the Steelers move on from here.

What we do know, Mark Sessler, is that the Browns move on to face the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead. And listen, I will not play this card, but it's worth saying. This feels like a house money game for the Cleveland Browns now. This is a huge success this season. You're now 12 and 5 with a playoff win over the hated Steelers, and you're going into Kansas City. You get killed?

Hey, listen, you got beat by Patrick Holmes. You win. Oh, you blow the roof off the place. So it feels like a good spot for the Brown. to show up loose and ready to play. Well, I feel the same way. I think that the Brown Steelers thing, and West you mentioned it,

it's a big brother, little brother. It's trying to play your dad in the driveway and, you know, the basketball hoop, that kind of thing. And at some point in life, you find a way to squeak out of victory. The Chiefs are a whole different matter, and I watched this entire game standing up. I think I sat for maybe two seconds the entire game.

That game, I'm not trying to say it's, I'm with you, Dan, where it's just like, I'll appreciate that they've got to that point, and that's a great test. But the last thing I will say is that I hope each of us find happiness rooting for or being agnostic and enjoying football in whatever way we do in each other's presence. I didn't think this would happen until I was 72. I always thought it would happen when I was like near the end, and I'd be texting you guys from like an island in the Caribbean or something,

that it's happening while we're still doing the show means something to me. It does mean something that we were on Sky, and all this because they've been our allies, and so I feel thankful, and I'm not, I know that I don't, like, rah-rah and jump around in a jersey and all this stuff, but I, inside, I do feel it quite a bit. The men's still wearing a sports coat right now. He is a professional. I'm not, I wasn't going to change my clothes at all. I wasn't going to change my clothes. I get it. And you know what? You might have sent Big Ben into retirement. Either way, you sent him into infamy, those interceptions. How about that? And before, before I turn it over to West for the final word, I want to give, uh, this quote, which will be etched into stone of this rivalry, Juju Smith-Schuster.

I think they're still the same Browns team I play every year. I think they're nameless gray faces. They have a couple of good players on their team. But at the end of the day, I don't know. The Browns is de Browns. Not anymore, Juju. Wes, thank you for coming on. Any final thoughts before you sign off and hit the hay?

I had my pain pump implanted, hopefully rounding a curve here, hopefully be able to be on the show a little bit more frequently in the coming weeks. Thanks to everyone who's reached out. Appreciate all the fond sentiments in the past few weeks. Very nice. Looking good, Wes, sounded good. Thank you for joining us. we love you buddy we love you love you guys too there we go is chris wessling the king of west

cincinnati let's uh we're just getting started here the brown's advance uh let's see who else gets to move on to the nfl's version of the elite eight next stop super oh mull from the six murray the tailback dionette harris motioning over the left side now back to the right breeze fakes it looking for someone to throw to under pressure he dumps it underneath Lathamius Murray at the five across the goal line. Touchdown! Latamius Murray. Zach Schreve-induced McAllister at WWL.

It wasn't the cakewalk we all expected, but the Saints took care of business on Sunday at the Superdome, getting two touchdown throws from Drew Brees and another rock-solid performance from their defense. 21-9 win over the Bears. New Orleans advanced to the divisional playoffs for the third time in four years where they'll meet Tom Brady and the Bucks in the most hotly anticipated showdown

between 2.40-something quarterbacks in the history of our league. Greg, they say what they had to do here and greater challenges await. Right, this felt like the most knock-it-out playoff game I can remember. I think this is going to happen sometimes now with the seventh seed in.

Oh, don't say that. They got to lose. I know it's big money for the NFL to add playoff games. Just every once in a while. If that's what this is going to be where we lose the second seat, the buy on week 17 and the drama and then we get dogs like this every year uh-uh well here's here's the flip side um the best game of the weekend i would say uh was bill's colts

so that was the other two seven and that that helped uh an 11 win team get into the playoffs all right with philip rivers um you know like so you never know how it's going to go now that said i think we have these playoff games anyways in a normal year it does feel like a come down. After this nice moment we all just shared, Wes is on the show. We're celebrating the first Brown's victory in the playoffs since 95. We got to talk about, you know, the Saints winning a game where they had 5.1 yards per play against the Bears. It was a little much, but it proved what we've said all year about the Saints, that they can win different kinds of ways. And I personally believe, player for player, it's the best team around Drew Brees that

they've had. I mean, there'll be some others that are close, but it's a really good defense. It's a good offensive line. It's a good running game. Now Michael Thomas is back. Drew Brees may or may not hold them back. I think that that's going to play out over the next couple of weeks. We'll see. I think they have to be thrilled just that they moved past this and that they get an opponent that they're very comfortable with in Tampa in New Orleans next week. So I don't take too much from this game. It's almost like when teams were playing the Jets. I know it's a playoff team, but it's like they did what they needed to do

and they moved on. I'm with you and they ran into a Bears team that. Unnecessary to bring up the Jets in any context there, but go on. Felt a little unnecessary. I just meant we kept saying that during the year. Like what did I learn about this team this week? My point was, I don't know what I learned about the Saints this week. That's all.

Yeah, I think that's fair. It's like they just had a sort of white knuckle through this thing, you know, and they did. And the bears, to me, you know, bigger picture, I'm kind of glad this game happened for the bears, because you don't come out of the season with hopefully like delusions of grandeur about who your coach is, your general manager, your quarterback, your offense, your scheme. Bears gave them a tough fight early on. They really did. but they're also sloppy.

There were unnecessary penalties. To me, it was a meltdown moment to have Anthony Miller get disqualified for falling for C.J. Gardner Johnson's antics, which everyone knows that C.J. Gardner Johnson, that's what he does. I mean, he's gotten three guys, he's gotten two guys kicked out of the games, and he's got Michael Thomas suspended. I don't know if anyone's ever had a run like this. Well, and who was the player that, A, dropped the trick-play bomb that would have completely changed the complexion of the game?

Javon Wims, right? And he's the same player that threw a punch at Gardner Johnson earlier in the year. One of the most unnecessary weird pun. Gardner Johnson was wearing a helmet, no less. Sure. I mean, like, just so it's like the bears, to me, are they a team that you could say, wow, if anything, they're a team built of composure? No, it's the opposite. And on top of it, like the offense, you know, played a real defense today.

And that, Greg, you're right, that the defense surrounding Drew Brees right now is completely different than in years past. And so, you know, they match up well with the Bucks and this game fades into the distance, as does the opponent. Yeah, I thought the mirage of the Bears, quote unquote, surge was exposed last week in Green Bay. Or in Chicago it was when the Packers put it on Mitch Trubis. and you saw, you know, how the bears looked when they weren't playing the worst defenses in football. So this was just kind of an extension of that. And from just the pure game standpoint, because I agree, I think it helps them perhaps in the long term because, you know, after these last two weeks, there are no questions about Trebisky. You know, oh, maybe we should keep him around.

He's like, no, you should start fresh. You didn't pick up his option. And now he didn't show you enough to change your mind on that. Matt Nagy, that's a decision that needs to be made. You could argue, I know Nagy is not a very popular figure on this show, but you could argue that, you know, the fact that they were down four points late in the third quarter in this game showed something, you know, in Nagy and his ability to keep this team competitive.

But there's such a razor-thin margin of error in this type of match-up. So when Javon Wims drops that pass and Tribisky didn't do much the whole day, but that was a dime to a wide-open receiver. And it's one of the worst drops you'll ever see. The die was cast on the game at that point. It's like, okay, the Bears aren't here to do something special. And New Orleans kind of played their part in it. They're like, all right, we know there's nothing really dramatic or fun going on here.

We're just going to grind this thing out. And that's what they did. We'll have a chance to talk about them in the preview show and on Tuesday. But it's a concern. Their first six drives, they had seven points in a turnover. And they weren't playing the Bears from the first half of the season. They were playing a Bears team missing their, what I think was probably their best player this year, Roquan Smith. I think he had a better year even than Cleo Mac. They were missing

Buster screen and Jalen Johnson, two starters. And so that's a concern. And Mooney, who was an important part of their offense. Right. Mooney on offense. I think that's a concern for the Saints' offense, but like he's working hard for yards. Breeze threw 39 passes for 265. Reminds me of a couple weeks ago where he threw about 50 to get to 300. You know, they're working hard for yards. It's a different type of team. But they also, their coaches are so good. Like, when they came out a half time, they did totally adjust. And then they go to touchdown, touchdown, to win the game, you know, going away. This should have been 28 to 3. Like, if they didn't, you know, overturn Breeze's touchdown right at the goal line and then Mitch puts up a garbage time, one at the

buzzer, it was 28 to 3. So the score even feels a little misleading. He went, yeah. There was also crazy, there was also a crazy punt in this game. I mean, the bears are punting down three scores with like seven minutes to go in the game. It's like, I guess I'm asking with some of these scenarios, it's like, if you're Matt Nagy, and that's sort of been your, like, he's been critiqued for that kind of stuff before, what are you doing? What are you suggesting to your own team when you're punting down that? But it's the same thing we say about Sean McVeigh, we don't give him heat for it. It's like, I do. I do a little. I'm not talking specifically game management decision. I'm talking about Sean McVeigh doesn't trust Jared Gough and he coaches

that way. That's exactly, I think, the way Nagy feels about Trebisky. And it affects his decision-making in terms of being aggressive because he simply doesn't trust his quarterback to help him out. I just don't like these teams that have to just trust their defense. It's like it's all on our defense because the Bears defense honestly played a really good game and they still, they still in the end, it wasn't nearly enough. This is not 1971. How many teams? I mean, again, not to give, now I get too much credit, but how many teams down three scores with three minutes to play have a fourth, a fourth and goal stop? You know, they kept the same. They played hard, that whole game.

They just did not get help. And I think Pagana, they play hard for Pagano, who was all pumped up in this game. I think that's the other takeaway, Greg, which you hit on, that much was made of Drew Brees, Michael Thomas, Alvin Kamara, finally all in the field together. But ultimately, you know,

it's become clear now at this stage of the game with Brees, who's almost certainly in his final games of his career, that this attack is just not, it doesn't pack the punch it once did. So you're just not going to get the 30 to 40-point explosions of yesterday, most weeks. and it's going to be a defense, even the Saints are going to be a team that I think relies more in their defense than the offense. Yeah, Thomas looked good, though, so I think that matters.

And they haven't played many games together to be fair to them. So, you know, as they work through this, you know, in their mind, hopefully they get better each week. When the Bears just decided to run the ball before half time instead of trying to score in a seven to three lead to just kill the clock, that to me was like the ultimate game over and I don't trust my quarterback. We should mention the Nickelodeon broadcast. I think that's the only thing that saved this game, at least in terms of Jews. I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready. I don't know what that is, but I like it.

What is it? I don't know either. I didn't. I was, I watched it alone because my wife and kids left the house, so I had no reason to put on the children's program, but Twitter was all a flutter about. I only did a little, but Walker loved it. My son, they were watching in the room. I was back in the bedroom, but I went in it out and and they were they were enjoying the slime the sponge bob and they were like learning things like it was good we watched about an hour of the game that way and um it there were clear advantage like clear wonderful things for young viewers learning um football and they threw a lot of little animation in and they in their first down um stripe was um very defined in a way that kids would would love um there was also in the game though you know you've got a player punching someone um you

There was a very audible F-bomb dropped on Nickelodeon, which I don't think they were planning for. So, you know, I give Nate Burleson and friends a lot of credit for, you know, getting them out of some tough corners, too. Burleson is just clearly good at this. I mean, you put him in any format. He seems to succeed and explain the game very well. Don't put Lewis Riddick in the booth for Nickelodeon.

But no, yeah. By the way, that was SpongeBob. It just came out so loud. I couldn't really. Like, I know what SpongeBob sounds like, but I didn't. I couldn't tell. Lewis Riddick, dropping the brown word out of nowhere in the middle of a telecast today was one of my favorite. You know, it was an interesting day from a broadcasting perspective.

You had Riddick saying this shit is electric. You had the Nickelodeon broadcast and everything that was going on with that. I'm ready. You had poor Tony Romo, you know, in a closet somewhere in parts unknown, looking pale and struggling not to talk over Jim Nance, who's from at the Superdome, in the latest COVID-19 madness. It was just, you know, these little details of a very long weekend of football. We felt their pain. The talking over each other when you have a delay and you're in different places on TV,

it's like, all right, if it happens to Tony Romo, I don't feel as bad. That's true. All right. Let us keep moving to the first game of Sunday. On 3rd and 9, Jackson of the Roe, steps out. Out pocket collapsing. He escapes. Piece of the 40-yard line. 35, 30. Lamar Jackson to the 20.

Leg-race, 10, 5. And he's pushed out of bounds at the one-yard line. No, signal is touchdown. Lamar Jackson. On third and nine, he takes it to the house. And the Ravens an extra point away from tying it up. Jerry Sandusky with the call, W-B-A-L. The hay was not in the barn at that point, but that was the turning point.

Jaxon shot through a muddy pocket, entered open space, then used that 4-3 speed to outrun half of the Titans defense on a 48-yard score. It was the big turning point in a 20 to 13 win over the Titans at Nissan Stadium. It's the first playoff win of Jackson's career, so he gets that monkey off his back, and it sets up the Ravens for a division round clash with the bills next week in an Orchard Park. I believe Jackson deserves a lot of. praise for his play in this game. But when I was watching this game, what I couldn't get over

was what Don Wink Martindale and the Ravens defense did. They've been playing better all season. I mean, the back half of the season, they were cresting along with the offense. It was the whole team was improving vastly as things played out down the stretch. But you wondered what would happen when you played a big time offense and what was a bigger offense this season than the Titans to completely shut down the Titans offense as they did, holding Derek Henry to 40 yards on 18 carries to harass Ryan Tannahill to the point where he just was not himself and was never able to get clicking with A.J. Brown. And of course, Marcus Peter with that, Peters with a huge interception that essentially sealed

the game. That was such a unforeseen development to me because I thought this game had shootout written all over it but the Ravens again that organization has run so well that they always find a way even when you think that they won't

they always do. And their injuries on defense throughout this year kind of were overlooked compared to the offense but they had problems there too and they had COVID issues too and you're right there they always find a way to improve. That was the lowest yardage in any Titans game

since the game that Marcus Mariotta was benched for Ryan Tannell, which to me is like, that's the inflection point of this organization. So for Baltimore to dominate it like that defensively, they're really hard to prepare for. But it's also partly, you know, you give Lamar Jackson and the offense credit

because part of it is they only had nine drives. It's like there wasn't much. time. The Ravens, it wasn't their peak offensive performance, but once they got it going after the first quarter, ultimately they went on these five-minute drives, whether it finished in a touchdown or a field goal. It shortened the game, and I love the end of the game. I always love this more than anything. The Browns are great at this, but it says so much. When the other teams knows you're going to run at the end and you do run, and that's how you finish the game when they know it's coming, man, it feels like as a fan, there must be nothing.

more satisfying. Because when the Ravens got the ball back after that interception by Tannahill, which everyone's going to remember is kind of like, oh, that ended the game. There was like 2.30 left in some timeouts. There was no rule that the Ravens couldn't go three and out right there, but they basically just ran it down their throats and the game was over. And that was a Ravens type of statement win. Well, and I would, I'd point to how, you know, the first quarter went, how this game opened that, you know, A.J. Brown and Tanahill run fire. And I didn't know if Baltimore had an answer for A.J. Brown early on.

And he's a little streaky. He'll be super electric and then typically get like an ankle injury and vanish for a quarter. It seems like I feel like that's eight games in a row. That seems to happen to him. But Baltimore fell into the same corner they did a year ago. And I think the playoffs are just a little bit different where it's not week eight buried on some B-Team network feed, where everyone's watching and it's like the same questions

are being asked about Lamar Jackson and I thought the Titans did a really good job early on of bottling up Lamar Jackson forcing him to run horizontally but when his run started to become vertical and we saw that incredible touchdown run but that wasn't the only one there were a bunch of

he gashed them over and over that you could feel the ravens working their way out of that 10-0 hole working their way out of what happened last year and simply seizing power. And I think they came an inch away from being broken, and then I think they broke the Titans. And everything that you'd want out of a Titans win,

which would be get up early, have Derek Henry start to take over. Because even in last year's game against the Ravens, it was Derek Henry late in the game in the fourth quarter where he went nuts. It never happened today. He had like 40 yards around 2.1 yards per carry or something like that. And they did their job. And so I'm so with you, Dan, that like in this coach, coaching carousel that seems to, you know, discard people from a year ago. Greg Roman had a great

second half coaching. Wink Martindale had an incredible four quarters in general outside of the first couple drives. So these Ravens' assistants are as great of a candidate as you could find. You know, Arthur Smith is every day. He's like loading up on interviews. Everybody wants to talk to Arthur Smith. And meanwhile, Martindale out-coached him in this game. And it, I think the reason why, because it was 10-0 at the end of the first quarter and Lamar had thrown a truly hideous interception, the ugliest interception we've seen in the playoffs so far, I would

say. And it all seemed like it was playing out all over again, the nightmare for the Ravens, but the difference is, is like the whole team came to play. So when Lamar slumped early with the throw and wasn't making plays with his legs, the defense kept things under control. And then when Lamar found his footing, and again,

it was third and long at midfield. They're down 10-3 at the end of the first half. and that 48-yard touchdown run changed everything. And after the game, here's what John Harbaugh had to say about that run. It's one of the best runs I've ever seen. It's the best run I've ever seen by quarterback. I mean, I think it's even greater than the Cincinnati run you had a year or two ago.

I mean, that's just a phenomenal play. What effect it had, I think it had a big effect on it. It just got us back in the game. I mean, we needed points at that point. It got us back in the game. Psychologically, I really don't know, but it made me feel a lot better and tell you that. I don't know if it was the best run ever by a quarterback, but I get why he said that,

because it almost, in addition to tying the game and putting Baltimore back on its feet, it seemed to almost exercise some of those Lamar demons at that point. See, it had this impact special play that just changed the game. And then just purely from like the pure athleticism of it, that's what makes him so much different. So anybody quarterback, Tyler Heineke, for instance, not to take anything away from him, we'll get to him a little bit. He could escape from a muddy pocket and get into the second level of defense.

But Lamar's ability to then hit the turbo button and just run away from five different defenders who all have an angle on him is something that we've never seen. And I guess that's why Patrick Claibon's in love. Right. I mean, Kenny Vaccaro, the Titan safety, like Jackson hadn't even passed him yet and he just started jogging after him. It was one of the funniest replays. Like, he didn't even, he was done. I mean, they should make fun of him for that. But he was just like, okay, I'm along for the show.

You almost take it for granted. I mean, he ran for 136. You know, they ran for 236. He was 136 of that. And he started getting to the outside in the second half. But his throws to the outside were really big today. You know, that's, he busted some narratives. Not that these should really exist exactly.

We know, you know, he has strengths and weaknesses. but you know they hadn't come back from down 10 with him okay you did that oh you know you don't throw it to the outside well today that was where they really did throw it well to the outside oh Hollywood Brown's kind of a you know it doesn't show up in the big moments well he went seven for 109 on a lot of throw it to the outside so it was like a lot of a lot of good narrative busting for Lamar to just move past and I love seeing guys I mean I love Lamar too just because no one's no one's ever there's never been anyone quite like when John Harbaugh says that it might be like the, you know, it's got to be one of the most important runs a quarterback's ever had.

Because it's not like, it's not like there's any other quarterbacks running for 50 yards in a playout, you know, in a key moment in a playoff game. Just it hasn't happened before. We haven't seen that. And it's a bitter way for the Titans to go out because all season, their offense was special and you worried, oh, man, this defense is going to get them killed in a big spot. And for them to lose in a game, we're singing the praises of Lamar, but still 20 points the Ravens scored in this game.

Like the Tennessee defense, as bad as it's been all year, that's, that was a good performance from them. They played really well early on. And they got, they, they, they, they sacked him. Like, they got, everyone said they can't rush the past. Right. And so, I mean, I think the thing that just, it flipped like 16, 17 minutes into the game. I mean, it was all Titans early.

That's frustrating for the Titans. Because you would think, if you would have told the Titans fans, oh, your, your defense is actually going to hold Lamar Jackson to 20 points, you're, you're planning the division around playoffs so the fact that it didn't work out that way that was a big surprise yeah i mean they didn't in some key spot you know they get the touchdown late in the second quarter and then they come out after after him you're right roman i think brought out you know they did a good job on the telecast talking about some concepts you know they saved it for the second half i do wonder if stefansky did that too like more teams are doing that where they're scripting the start of the

second half um before the games even start like sit let's let's save using you know patrick ricard as our main option suddenly for the second half. But you got, I mean, Vrable drove me crazy here. The punt that Vrable had. Oh, my God. Don't get me started on that. On fourth and two, it's not just that like, of course, the number, you know, the analytics say, of course you go for it.

Fourth and two, you're, I think, right about the 40. Right, 40 down a touchdown. You're an offensive team. You have Derek Henry. Right. You've been an offensive team all year. And they showed very little faith in Derek Henry all day. That was not the only time that they couldn't convert short yardage.

There was about three other drives that ended on them getting stuffed on, not getting stuff, like getting stuffed on a second and three and then throwing the ball. They didn't give the ball to Henry in those situations. It was wild. Not a great performance by Artie Smith there. Or really anyone on the Titans connected to the Titans office offense. Tough loss.

All right. Good stuff. That was Sunday. Now we move to... Been a long couple of days. Mark's like, get me to that beer. Saturday night. Give me some Gene Decker off.

Dropping deep Brady throws the ball to the right side. He's got to be open Antonio Brown. Three, two, one. Touchdown Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Brady finds AP. What is that? Antonio Brown takes it in to the pain of the YouTube. Play that again, Ricky.

I've got to hear what is, what was going on in the background. Dropping deep Brady throws the ball to the right side. He's got a real. Oh, this is Antonio Brown. Three, two, one. Touchdown, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It's what it is. Oh, wow.

I remember that from the television broadcast. He was going absolutely nuts. And there's no crowd noise to drown Antonio Brown out. It kind of sounds like Sessler in that old back shed that he had in his previous residence. It does not. That is not. It sounded like an animal being tortured. What's he doing that there?

Gene Deckerhoff. UFUS with a call. Tom Brady played his 42nd playoff game on Saturday night and his first without Bill Belichick on the sideline. The performance, vintage Brady, 3181 yards, two touchdowns, and a 3123 win over the Washington football team. Mark Tyler Heineke made this game more interesting than it had any right to be,

but the Bucks move on to face the Saints next week at the Super Bowl. They took care of business. This game was one where, we were on Sky all weekend and I went on and called Tyler Heineke just sort of a kind of a quarterback patch that would be attached to like a Thursday night, meaningless Thursday night game with very few eyeballs in it. And then he proceeds to electrify Tampa's defense. And I don't know, to the point where you've got people wondering if he might be

the quarterback of the future for them or at least like, well, I would just say at least pulls the like a Colt McCoy type move where he will be in the league for 10 years because there's something about him. Yes, your move, Sessler. You're the guy. I thought about that when I don't remember who called this game, but someone said, well, if nothing else, Tyler Heineke, just got a job for the next decade. I was like, that's Mark's Corner. He's the guy that declares which backup works for the next 10 years. He's right. I think it's fair, though, because I don't think it takes too much to get into that circle. And, you know, he's sort of a coach's dream. And they gave the bucks a fight, but I think kind of lost in the Heineckee verve was that Tom Brady

was lights out. And, you know, and this is this point, this is tired at this point, but how different of a world we live in with athletes, because they show that side-by-side comparison of Tom Brady with George Blanda. And Tom Brady has been getting microderm abrasion and, you know, is well hydrated. And George Blanda smoked cigarettes and drank like, you know, low grade 40 ounces. So that shows you what happens to our body, depending on how we treat it. And Tom Brady is thriving

and looking to me as good as he has. I mean, the bucks are a little streaky, but they're real dangerous. And I know everyone, like the Saints have knocked him out twice. I have no idea what will happen next. Yeah, the game went so counter to expectations. I mean, because the Buck's offense did whatever they wanted to. They could have had more than 31 in this game.

And Washington's offense, you know, kind of put it to Todd Bull, so I think got too cute, too aggressive, to boomer bust defense. You know, they had some bad luck, like the Washington offense, or they could have scored even more, too. There was that tipped interception. You know, they had some opportunities. I think they moved the ball well. Like, they weren't ready for Heineke.

It was really an offensive game, but, man, Brees, some of those early throws, like there was a third intent of Miller to keep a drive alive. it's just like a bullet in a dime. I know like there's other old quarterbacks playing well, but none of them look like Brady. I mean, Breeze doesn't look like Brady. Ben doesn't look like Brady. Rivers is playing well.

He doesn't look like Brady. I mean, if you protect him and he's got a really good offensive line who really, for the most part, shut down Washington, he's spinning it, you know, as well as anyone. He really is. It's crazy. Chase Young's the latest guy to talk, talk, talk. And, you know, I guess some of these pass rushers coming

into the combine for their interviews, of Colleen and others. It's become almost part of the game. Who do you want to sack the most? And then that person inevitably says Tom Brady because he's the most famous quarterback. And then that gets played up when the two sides eventually meet.

Only in this case, Chase Young kind of doubled down on it and had fun with it. But then you've got to do something about it, Chase. You can't do not much at all and then limp to the sideline with a sprained ankle. I think that has been I think Brady is so

savvy in how he handled everything when he didn't he saw that the Patriots weren't doing the right thing to build up around him in a way that would allow him to finish his career in New England. He said, I'm leaving. And then he found the perfect offense, not just the everybody latched on to the skill players and there were plenty for him to play football with, but the offensive line, which has allowed him to still be Tom Brady. I mean, unbelievable. That's what the, and I when I was trying to figure out what the upset of the week was and it turned out to be the Browns I thought Washington okay they're going to

get they're going to cook up some heat on Brady and he's going to get pissed off but that never happened that never materialized and once that happened I was like oh this is going to be a blowout so to Heineke's credit and he kind of looks like Ryan Phillipie and he's got some arm tats also so there's a little edge

to Heineke I'm kind of into Heineke not in a physical way but just kind of in like oh he's kind of interesting to me he had the bad tweet like the next day after they like everyone found not he didn't have any but they they found he has been in some oh bad tweets hot water yeah okay that that makes perfect sense uh because he looks like ryan philpy with all the ink but uh good for him for for keeping that game interesting on a saturday night i want to give if taylor heineke does nothing else yeah he allowed that game to be interesting

in prime time on saturday yeah the one last thing i i want to say on this game was you know what it didn't look like the buck's offense anymore though they had they were playing like two three tight ends the whole game, they were doing play action the whole game, you know, look like the Patriots offense. I don't know if they're going to continue that, but I think if you're a Bucks fan, you've got to be encouraged that it was a pretty hard left turn. They have not played with that like heavy personnel, and that's what they thought they needed to do to protect a gronk barely went out on a pass route. I mean, and that that sort of flexibility to me screams Patriots. It does not, it does not look like the normal chuck it up, Bruce Arring. I like the

Brady Cameron Brate connection last night and getting a few more people involved. I mean, I don't love their ground game. That's the one thing is that they get stuck in that situation, but look at, we talk about Antonio. Ronald Jones is healthy. If you're depending on Leonard Four Nett, it's not going to be too much.

I mean, even with him, it's just not, it's just not their signature to me, but like, but then you've got Antonio Brown getting better and better every week, and it's a dangerous team. Since Tampa Bay's week 13 by, Brady is thrown 14 touchdowns, one interception over five straight wins. Compare that to the four games before the

Bucs by when Brady had eight touchdowns and seven picks, and the Tampa Bay lost three or four. It got pretty dark there for a while, but now it's feeling really good, and this is going to be a great game again next week between New Orleans and Tampa Bay. A lot of fun. All right. Oh, did we talk about the extremely flattering for Tom George Blanda side-by-side graphic? We've mentioned, I mentioned my take on that, but you could, if you have anything to add. I don't have anything to add. I was doing some behind the scenes work with Ricky while you guys were having, I'm sure, breathlessly awesome conversation. The Blanda thing did come up, so I don't need to add anything to it.

It's box checked. Let's move on. He looks younger than George. He looks younger than George. That's right. It picked. Darius Williams jumped it. And he's going to house it.

A pick six. A defensive touchdown. and the Rams extend their lead. Oh, yeah, you know who that is. J.B. Long, friend of the show, KSPN with the call. Darius Williams jumped the route in a way that you just don't see in a wide receiver screen. Picked off the Russell Wilson past 42 yards for his score.

Cam Acres rushed for a buck 31 and a touch, and the Rams beat the Seahawks 30 to 20. It was Seattle's first home loss in the Pete Carroll era. Mark, the Rams are moving on because their defense is special, maybe the best in the league. Maybe, definitely, definitely, maybe. I'd say definitely, and I'm not typically someone that, you know, in mid-January is going to, I guess, increase my faith in a team with an offense. I don't trust a whole lot with quarterback issues and a strong defense, but the Rams, the Rams I do, I really. think that they, I think they'd be a hot candidate to upset whoever they deal with down

the stretch because of what, because of Brandon Staley, the way they're organized, because Aaron Donald, if he's going to be healthy, he's got issues health-wise going into the next game. And what they did to Seattle, I mean, I think that, you know, the Seahawks could not stop L.A.'s ground game, but on offense, they could not convert third downs. They made the biggest mistake in the game, what we just heard, the pick six. And I was sitting there watching this thing. And this game also, by the way, I don't know if it was you guys or if it was just the time in the day. Was this game seven and a half hours long? I don't know how long it was. It was literally a long game. I think it was the longest game of the weekend. Remember we, yeah, it went almost all

the way until the next kickoff. It really did. And look, I get the Jared Gough. First of all, I mean, I've been really hard on Jared Gough. I think a lot of people, it's chic to be down on Jared Gough right now for good reason, but he does have like pins that were just inserted to his finger less than a couple weeks ago. So I don't think that he was in a good position to be doing what he was asked to do. But I cannot remember a playoff game between two quarterbacks that led their teams to Super Bowls. And in this game, like the most putrid offensive output that I can recall between two quarterbacks of that nature.

It was a hard watch. It was a long game. It was a hard watch. And Greg, I thought you had one of the tweets of the weekend when you talked about how... Hey, now. Can we get some fancy drop for that? No, but everyone, like you're saying, everyone says they love defensive football until they have to, correct me if I'm misquoting you, but until they have to actually sit and watch it.

It's like these are two defensive teams where they want to be. And it's like, this game was... Wait, but aren't you the same, not to interrupt, but like, aren't you the same guys that I slap my forehead where I... that 7-7-Arizona, whatever game. You're like, that's one of the best games ever. I look at Tennessee. Like Tennessee Ravens today had some great defense.

But you've got to have real offense sprinkled in, and it's got to go back and forth. This was great defense against two inept offenses. That's asking a little bit more. And Russell Wilson, like, listen, he's going against the Rams defense, and they're no joke, but he doesn't have any pins in his thumb. and he played poorly. 142 passing yards,

a completion percentage of 41% second lowest mark of his career. And this was all part of a larger story about the Seahawks season, which by the way, was a strange season. They go 12 and 4. They win their division. They had stretches where the offense was awesome,

a long stretch where the defense was great, but they never were at the same time. And so because of that, They were never special as a team, and now they're won and done in the playoffs. That's frustrating as well, because it should be there. You would think that Russell Wilson is going to find a way to make those plays. But even when Aaron Donald goes out of the game with the rib injury, and thankfully for the Rams, it doesn't look like a serious injury.

Same thing with Cooper Cups injury late in that game. He seems to be possibly able to play next week as well. Even when Aaron Donald exits the game, Russell Wilson does not have a chance. chance, and that's where I'll put more on Seattle's offense as a whole, and maybe Brian Schottinheimer has something to answer to, because Russell Wilson was pressured on exactly 50% of his dropbacks. That is not sustainable, and that needs to be fixed. And some of that's on Russell Wilson. It's been the case throughout his career, and then in this case, some of it was not. I heard some whispers, people who watch this game closely who thinks

that the Rams height is a problem for him. They're like a huge defensive line. with Brockers and everyone, and you get some pressure up the middle with, you know, Brockers is like 6-6 or something, but, you know, most of them are pretty tall. And, like, he's not seen, he was not seeing the field for whatever reason, especially against the Rams, but really since Week 9, they were just a bad offense. And I would say the Rams were a bad offense, but it's the reason I picked the Rams other than, you know, I'm going to root for who my daughter's rooting for. And the same reason why Mark was locking up the Rams before he jumped off of it to a successful

Ravens lock, it's like, okay, if they're both bad offenses, at least... No, it was a Rams lock, then a Seahawks lock, then the Ravens lock. Oh, yeah, that's right. I forgot it. A third of well-off teams. We haven't yet, like, sat down and decided whether that's sanctioned. We're going to get to that a little bit later. Well, no one has any power over that.

It's sanctioned. You did change it. You changed it beforehand. But, like, at least the Rams have this special group in this game, which is two of maybe the four best defensive players in the entire league and a really great coach. So that's like, that's going to be a lot for Aaron Rogers to deal with next week. Now, I find it very interesting, Sean McVeigh will not give any indication early in the week who might start at quarterback.

So we're going to go through this song and dance again. John Walford, you know, we haven't even mentioned, you know, left on the first drive with what turned out to be a stinger. We didn't know what it was at the time. And like a lot of people who were, you know, thinking the Rams would win, rooting for the Rams, I thought, oh, this is a bad development for the Rams. Like I think Sean McVeigh chose John Wolford because he thought they gave them a better chance to win, mix it up a little bit against a defense that knows you really well and you just played.

So that's part of it too. And Goff came in. He did just enough. They didn't really average any more yards for play than the Seahawks, but he avoided the big mistake. and it's just such a strange situation that like, okay, Gough goes and wins the game. And still McVeigh's not saying he's the starter next week. It's fascinating. But they also seem like with that defense, I think they could almost beat anyone.

I thought they would have loved to play the Saints. I think they could have shut them down. It'll be a little tougher against the backers. Wolford was mega pissed at Jamal Adams after that play. Adams wasn't initially they threw the flag and then they picked it up. and I believe, I think it was Collinsworth. No, I don't know who was doing the call. It's too scrambled in my mind, but said that was a bad no-call.

Akeman. Akeman. Akeman said the flag should have been thrown. So Wolford, that was a tough break for him because that was such a huge stage. Maybe, yeah, maybe he ends up getting more of a look because the other thing Akeman said, and, you know, these guys that are plugged in that call the games, you learn a lot during the telecast that, you know, people that were close and watching the Rams practice and the reason why Jared Goff wasn't even starting wasn't supposed to take a snap in this

game was because every fourth ball he threw came out of his hand weird and fluttered. So, you know, I mean, I'll give credit, Sean McVeigh, too, on a day where it's hard to trust Goff and his struggles and also his injury now. When they iced the game on a third and short, they let Goff throw the ball and that resulted in the game clinching touchdown. just a really nice win for the Rams and you hope they're at full strength physically for that game

with Donald and Cup. Yeah, it feels like their season's kind of a success now. They've checked the box of like a lot of things in the McVeigh run. He made the playoffs his first year. You make the Super Bowl now. Okay, you get a playoff win. You obviously want, you have higher aspirations, but it feels like they've kind of overachie. I do think what Aikman was saying, though,

he also was just saying how frustrated they were with golf before the injury. He made a point to say that. And you can kind of pick up that he's been saying that they were getting really frustrated and they were talking about Goff's confidence. So they, you know, they just didn't feel like Goff was confident right now. And it's crazy. But man, the defense is playing confident. The last thing, sorry, is just like when the Seahawks got the ball back at the end, it was kind of like when the Ravens run the ball down your throat. Like it was garbage time, sort of. And the Seahawks really had no chance to win. But they still get sacked. And they didn't

get a single first down and they got sacked two times. And that's how you end. game like that that just was like a show of force my one thing about the rams like last thing is like brandon staley um his star is rising and and he's sort of anyone that's gotten close to him sees like this football lifer who is um you know may not be there a couple weeks from now he's he's interviewing with the jets um the chargers are interested they're interviewing him and that's if you're a coach and we don't ever really like see this side of it but if he ever could become the coach of the Chargers. He doesn't have to move. I don't know what his parental situation is, but his kids don't have to move. It's like, and you've got a franchise quarterback potentially.

But Brandon Stilly may be a head coach, a fortnight from now, which is a tremendous development for a guy that no one knew about a year ago. Aikman also said on the telecast that what he has heard is that he might be a year or two away. He still might be seen as a little green on that. He's only 30 years old. But at the same time, what they're doing, what they did yesterday, what they could do next week against Aaron Rodgers. That's better than any job interview on a Zoom call that Brandon Staley could take part in. So keep an eye on it.

My final thought, CL Seahawks, thank you for the number 23 overall pick in the 2021 draft. And good luck in your negotiations with Jamal Adams. I'm sure he'll be fair. Might be doing a Brian Schottenheimer update on Tuesday. That's what my spidey senses didn't tell me. No harm to the man,

but it just feels like that could be. coming. Good luck, John Schneider. Let's move up. Four seconds left. They get one play to make it. The bills have lost a game on this, Murph. This is a Hail Mary situation. Find the snap. Rivers back to throw. Waiting, waiting, going for all of it, down the right sideline, the pass up in the air.

It is knocked down incomplete. Knockedown incomplete. Micah Hyde knocks it down. And the clock showed zero. The bills advance. The bills win it. The bills win it. In the last second, The Bills win it. 2724. Unbelievable finish. There you go.

Great call by John Murphy and Eric Wood, WGR. Two guys who obviously waited a long time for that. Micah Hyde batted down, Philip Rivers' desperation heave as time ran out. The final play in a 27-24 win for the Bills over the Colts. It was Buffalo's first playoff win in 25 years. Josh Allen was at it again. passed for 324 yards, two passing touchdowns, one rushing score. And the bills, it wasn't easy, but they found a way.

And it sets up a great, great matchup next week against the Ravens in Orchard Park. Greg, the Cults are up for the challenge in this one. They really, really made the bills earn it. They missed so many chances, and even then it comes down to the end. I thought this was the best game of the weekend. I thought, you know, they both played well. I thought the craziest take I heard of the entire weekend was like, was an anti-Josh Allen take here,

that they almost blew the lead at the end and that he had the fumble in the fourth quarter and they could have blown it. Well, you're the guy, Greg, and all honesty, you're the guy who's always like, it doesn't matter who recovers the fumble, a fumbles, a fumble. And that was a huge fumble that they were very lucky that the offensive line fell on. I'll say that. No doubt.

But I think to watch that game and not come away with what I believe was the reality that Allen was the best player on the field by far and had one of his better games on a day where he didn't get as much help, where the defense wasn't that good, where the run game wasn't there, where he was having a creed on his own. That's all I mean is that I think it was a great Josh Allen game and that if he had had like a B game, because I think the rest of the team did, you know, they might have gone home. Yeah, there were a lot of times in this game where

Alan, you know, he takes a snap, drops back, and it's not there. Like, and he, you had to go through his progressions. He had to buy time. He made those type of plays all games. So while the numbers, by the way, were still great, 324 and three touchdowns, it wasn't. It ran for 54 in a touchdown too, yeah. Yeah, it wasn't on par with the, you know,

fantasy gold mine of December for him, but still, you know, big performance by a superstar. Yeah, I mean, whether or not like the overall performance match some of the others, he's still, he's becoming one of those quarterbacks that does four or five things a game that, you know, leave you dazzled. And my one takeaway, you know, from the cult side was, and it was sort of a note to self that I spent the week essentially sort of dismissing the cults as a balanced but unremarkable team. And yes, that may be what they are, but they came so close to knocking off Buffalo, which would have been a huge story here, that I think I just sort of underrated Frank Reich, and they may not have all the pieces they need on offense.

But, you know, for them, like, they had that one drive that went all the way down to the Bill's two yard line, and then they're stuffed. They had a drive with a killer missed field goal, and it really was just, they had a stuffed two-point conversion as well. It was just like little tiny things that the cults couldn't do well enough to hang around in this. The off sides was a killer. And there were a couple killer offsides this weekend. That might have been the worst. It was the worst. A dropped interception, you know, that sequence at the end of the first half was brutal because they really out.

It was very similar to the Steelers game and that they really outplayed their opponent in the first half. But yeah, that sequence at the goal line where they go for it, I don't mind them going for it. It's like, if you can't score, on four straight plays from the three and there was another short yardage situation they were bad in short yardage all year your boys got to make that throw I mean you want to talk about the difference between Philip Rivers

and his legacy as a playoff performer that throw where he just overshot Michael Pittman is exactly the type of throw that you got to make that was so close that was an inch that was an inch like if Pittman and stays you know some people would say if Pittman stays on his feet and just runs under it oh you know what I mean it was just like that I'm just saying that was an

Inches throwout. He had a – Rivers had a solid but not, like, amazing game. I mean, the numbers actually look crazy. But, man, like, here's the stat. They cross midfield every possession. Every – so to only end up with how many points did they get, 24 in the end, they crossed midfield every single possession of the game. I'd be a little worried that if I was the Bills fan that they gave up 472 yards. That's true, but I would point out that, like, in the first half,

like, the Bills started at their three-yard line. They're four, they're six, they're 11, and they're 15. And I think that caused some of their early issues where the Colts in the first half started on average at their own 36, and then it changed a little bit. But there was a field position issue going on early, and the bills were too powerful to put out. I mean, the missed field goal drive for the Colts was a 14-play drive. Again, I think there's something a little bit different in these playoff games, where if you go 14 plays the way that they did and you come away with no points,

and that happened on two separate drives, that is a mental killer. Yeah, and we touch on it, so I don't want to belabor it. But when they cannot convert on that fourth down pass to Pittman, you still have the bills backed up to give up then a 96-yard drive that includes stopping the bills on fourth down and holding them to a potentially long field goal only to get drawn off sides and then give up the score.

And there were two plays, two long completion, to Gabriel Davis where he was inbound by blades of field turf. I mean, it just felt like it just wasn't meant to be for the Colts. And I would say like there's no worse feeling than seeing your season end on a day when you felt like you were the better team. Watching that, I thought the Colts were on that day. I would say they were better. And they just, in those moments, they just could not make the play,

whether it was the Rivers throw or the ball on the ground not falling on it or being disciplined to stay back on that offside's call. Like the inability to just make one or two plays was the difference in really a tough loss. Yeah, unfortunately, it would kind of be a fitting way for it to end for Rivers. You know, he got the ball at the end with the chance, felt like every Chargers game. It was a game where like it looked like, I am with you, I think they kind of looked like the better team that they, very similar to the loss. they had against the Steelers where I thought they kind of, like, and just through a bunch of losses with the charges in Philip Rivers, too. right like just through just like a number of things you can't put your finger on all of them but it was just like a little crazy i put frank you know frank rike's timeout usage was insane i mean these coaches

they they spend all year looking for edges and little things and then they they use timeouts for like avoiding a delay a game at the beginning of the third quarter and on terrible challenges and it kills you at the end i mean they needed those time mcdermit was throwing them around like like lollipops too. It drives me crazy. Yeah. I mean, it's, I love Rivers. I love watching him play, but this is just another game for him. And this time of year, we were just left kind of scratching your head. They had they had first in 10 at the Buffalo 45 yard line with 28 seconds to play needing a field goal. And they never moved the yard at that point. It ended with Rivers heaving one down.

He can't, he can't reach the end zone from 50 yards. You couldn't do it. I wonder where they go. Frank Wright already came out and said that he wants Rivers back. But it would make sense to me for him to be in a role where it's Rivers and like, I don't know, like a darn old type or maybe a rookie that you really like. But would Rivers A want to be in that type of Ryan Fitzpatrick set up? And B, will Philip Rivers take the pay cut that would go along with that type of 1A, B type role? It will be interesting to see what he does here. man poor buck

poor uh poor colds that was rough uh we should give a little love to the bills fans here they just ended a streak that was as long as uh quarter century longer than the browns right or just a little less long i guess what was it 20 yeah it was about a year less 25 so think about that the browns ended it since 94 no playoffs win the bills since 95 with your stars stepping up like Stefan Diggs, he was awesome, too. We should give him some love. And the bucks since, oh, two. Those were three of the six longest, including two of the three longest,

streaks in the entire NFL. It's nice to see a little new blood. Well, it helps when New England doesn't make the playoffs for the first time in, you know, this entire century. My favorite image of the weekend, in fact, was the Bills fans sobbing openly. He's like a 44-year-old father of six. I love that. I mean, that meant a lot to.

Bill's fans to be able to be in that stadium and witness, quite frankly, a juggernaut team like that you haven't seen since the Jim Kelly Glory Days. So good for the Bills. You know, they'll have a tough matchup next week, but I just like their chances. They just seem like a special team. All right. I have to write a throwaway. Well, I shouldn't label it as that. They don't want me to say that. But I have to write an article about which fan base deserves a Super Bowl title. the most and where would I go with this? I mean, I know what I would pick, but

What do you mean a throwaway? Well, you wrap it up by noon and you move on with your day and then it, you know, it gets released on the internet. But I mean, your passion for internet writing is a all-time high. It is occasionally high. It is not always. But I just, I don't know how to pick between Buffalo feels like it's right there and Cleveland too, but I'll, I wonder who's going to win in this column.

It seems absurd that I would be writing this if you think about it. Now you'll go counter just to – No, you should just go Browns anyways. Well, I should do it one through five and make – Well, they haven't been in the Super Bowl. How about that? They haven't even been in the Super Bowl. So, you know, at least the Bill's got to –

I would say like the Ravens too. Got to make some Super Bowl. Ravens really feel like they are – Well, how about the Packers? Years. You like the Packers. They've had a lot of playoff heartbreak, actually. You know, that's tough.

Yeah. I'll put a tremendous amount of thought into this, and you'll see it up there soon. And just for people that don't know, like, throwaway is like, it's like an industry term, you know. Right. It's like, it's like, it's just something people use in the industry, a throwaway. It's like a clock puncher, you know. It's a type of way to describe your own work that you just hope your boss is never here. Yeah, this was a good place to discuss that.

No doubt about it. Well, Mark, this was a special day for your Browns and for Browns fans like you. Ricky, I think we should play Mark out with. a song we found on the internet that I believe originated around the time the announcement was made that the Browns were reentering the NFL after the Ravens' debacle of the mid-90s. The name of the song is, do you know it, Mark? And Erica, wake up. I'm going to guess it might be here we go again.

That is indeed the correct song by Michael Stanley and the Cleveland Browns. All-Star band, I believe, in 1998 song, Drew Carrey's in the video. We get it, Drew Carrey. You're from Cleveland, that you like sports. All right, Mark, congratulations. Thank you, guys. We're very happy for you. Listen, I locked up the Steelers.

Don't even feel a little bit bad that it eventually takes me out of the competition. Don't care. I'm happy for you. Well, thank you both. And to West and Erica. And best of luck. Going forward, House Money, baby. All right, we'll be back.

on Tuesday with another episode and we'll break down everything that's going in the league ahead of the divisional round playoffs which are Cleveland Browns are playing in.

This is Dan Hansa signing off for The Quiet Storm, the mailman, the old boss, and Ricky Hollywood. Until Tuesday. Crank it up, Ricky.

Now we're going to make new ones in a brand new crib Oh, here we go again. Oh, get out your palace and where the fire. Because the boys I thought we're going to rock this time. So let them all hear you and shout it out now. Here we'll go again.

Here we go again. It's the Cleveland Brown and it's first to dream. So get on your feet and let the games begin. Because here we go again. Hey, hey. Hey, everybody. Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks.

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