NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Wild Card Saturday Recap with Bill Barnwell

Episode Date: January 12, 2025

Gregg Rosenthal is joined by ESPN's Bill Barnwell to recap Saturday's Wild Card action between the Ravens and Steelers in Baltimore and Texans and Chargers in Houston. First, a look at how the Ravens were able to start their game in such a dominant fashion (01:45), followed by a discussion about Russel Wilson and the future of the Steelers (12:17). After the break, a break down of how the Texans defense saved their season (31:20), how Justin Herbert came up short (37:25), and whether or not the Texans should have their fans feeling optimistic going into the Divisional Round (57:20). Note: time codes approximate. NFL 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. Shot Bateman comes in motion to the right. Lamar takes a snap. Blitz pressure coming. He pumps once. Pocket collapsing.

He backed up to the twilight. Steps up, throws complete. Hill has it. Touchdown Ravens. Lamar Jackson extended the play Just as Hill got open And the Ravens are on the cusp of blowing the Steelers out That was Lamar Jackson

To Justice Hill For a absolutely ridiculous touchdown At the end of the first half This is NFL Daily And yes, we're going live on YouTube And everyone listening the next Next day, that was the end of an absolutely perfect first half by the Ravens. Went into halftime, 21-0, did not look back for the rest of the night.

28 to 14 is the final, although they ended with the ball, ended up one yard short of 300 yards rushing on the day. Yes, I'm Greg Rosenthal. I'm in my somewhat smoky garage. I don't know if this show is a health hazard tonight, but it's still a perfect night to talk football. and I have the perfect person to do it with. Bill Barnwell from ESPN, what is happening? And thank you for spending your late Saturday night with me, Bill. It's a pleasure, Greg, to be sitting here.

I love any time there's a call where you have, like, you know, a announcer saying, throw it away, end the play, give up, don't do it. And then the person who is incredibly talented does it and it succeeds. So perfect setup for this show right here. Yes, thank you for covering me there. That was our friend Jerry Sam. and Dusky, Rod Woodson on the call for WBAL, and I'm glad we're not listening to them on the season. I think we had to show a first half highlight. Like, often we play the play that kind of

ends the game. There wasn't necessarily that play. You had the dedicated touchdown. That might have ended the game, to be honest with you. But the story was the first half, and it's not like it's actually to talk about, but the first half, there were two drives. The first drive of the game where they ran the ball nine out of 13 times, and then Lamar Jackson throws an absolutely awesome touchdown through a little hole to hit Rashad Bateman on a third and long for the touchdown. And then the other touchdown drive where they go 13 straight runs, the longest drive any team had all season without passing the ball for 85 yards.

And like that kind of felt like the story. The story was the beginning of the game, and then the rest of it was just aftermath. Yeah, certainly for a team that did not have, the player who we, most of us, I think, believe is there only above average wide receiver in Zayflowers? It didn't feel like the Ravens missed even the tiniest of beats on offense. And what struck me about this game, Greg, is we do hear people talk about this idea of the divisional game, right? That you're playing a team you've played multiple times. It was a third

matchup between the Ravens and the Steelers this season, and it felt like every time the Ravens ran his own read, ran power read, ran, you know, pinpole with the readop, with the read ability for Lamar Jackson, it felt like they never had answers for it. I feel like the students were making mental mistakes. They felt like they were sloppy, especially on that long Henry touchdown run in the second half, there was a huge hole where multiple players ran with Lamar Jackson. Early in the game, you have Mika Fitzpatrick coming down from free safety to try and tackle Lamar Jackson as the scrape on the scrape exchange as the defender on the edge to try and stop a third and short. Like it felt like in a situation where the Ravens

are a very familiar team against the Steelers, the Steelers was still trying to find answers two quarters into this game after having played them twice already this season. It's because there's no good answer, right? Like the first half, the answer was kind of let Lamar run and he was running quickly. He had 10 rushes. with about 10 minutes left in the second quarter. He ended up with 15 rushes for 81 yards. I don't know if he tired himself out or they just realized that that's not the best way to go,

but he really didn't run the ball much again until the very end of the game when they were trying to kill the clock and he needed to. He looked a little banged up a couple times. But you mentioned that long Henry run. That's one where the dots are beautiful. I know you love the dots, Bill.

I don't love the dots. I'm a simple man. The dots, the dots all go with Lamar on that run four dots go to Lamar and Derek Henry goes up the middle. And the reason is Lamar holds it extra long or makes it look like he's holding extra long or just can't decide until the last second. And it's been the story of them all season. They're almost a hard team to talk about at least in this matchup, when it's just so much obvious they're better because it is the same thing week after week. And I'm not sure there's a great answer for it. But this Steelers

defense needed to be like unreal. to carry this team around them. And they weren't. They were below average for five weeks straight. It's kind of a Mike Tomlin thing. And just checking out the comments before we got going, like the whole fire Tomlin from the Steelers fans is going to be a thing this week.

Well, let's put a pin in that for a second while we talk about this game. But their defense just didn't really have enough answers. On a night when Lamar did drop back to pass, they did pressure him a decent amount. It wasn't like that was the problem. But they just, they weren't special. It's hard to be a special defense in 2024.

or 2025 and they just weren't special. Well, we're going to talk about a game, I assume. We're going to talk about the earlier Saturday game as well. And that was one where, to me, the best players on the Texans defense won them the game. Derek Stingley was awesome. Will Anderson was awesome. Do you know Hunter was awesome? And they were transcendent in those moments for the Steelers.

Their stars were not stars in this game. I mean, TJ Watt, you know, did you, what was your favorite T.J. Watt moment in this game, Greg? Do you even have noticed he was on the field? Fields. It's like him shaking off a lot of injuries. I mean, he had the elbow thing. There wasn't much a pressure or two. It's similar, frankly, to a lot of T.J. Watt performances over the last four or five weeks.

Yeah. I mean, Cam Hayward, who I think is phenomenal, was a first team all perfect from me this year. It did not have a big game, what was in and out a bit. Joey Porter Jr. had a couple nice plays, but also a couple of penalties as well. Mika Fitzpatrick didn't have a great game. He got stiff-armed into the earth by Derek Henry on Aaron. You got the rare double stiff arm where you get stiff armed. And as you're falling backwards, Derek Henry tries to stiff arm you on the way down again, which is very impressive.

It just felt like the Steelers, for them to win, for them to compete with great football teams, their stars have to make transcendent plays. And at their best this year, T.J. Watt made those plays. Kim Hayward made those plays. Bigger Fitzpatrick made those plays. They did not make those plays in this game. And there was no alternative for the Steelers defense. No, I was surprised when I saw the pressure rate was as high as it was. was. Then again, Lamar only threw 21 passes. Yeah. He hits, he hits 16 of them for 175 yards. So it couldn't

have been more efficient. Part of that is he was pressured on the, I would guess, four to five just true scrambles that he had, maybe six, seven scrambles that he had. And so he makes a positive out of that. But the first half of this game. Yeah. When they did get pressure, they weren't able to finish most of the time. And there were plenty of plays in this game. They got pressure on Lamar Jackson. and he just stepped up and stepped through those pressures and found an open receiver that happened multiple times in this game. Yeah, including that touchdown throw to Bateman, who has been so good this year and steps up tonight

as the true one receiver. And maybe that influenced them leaning even more on the run than usual. Henry ends up with 26 carries for 186. They ran the ball 69% of the time. I mean, the game script obviously helped. in that, but they were running it like that in the first half as well. But at half time, they had 19 first downs. That's more than the number of plays that Pittsburgh had, 308 yards to 59. And the thing that will strike me the most, and let's listen to the clip. We got

Eric behind the glass helping us out across the Los Angeles area. Just keep an eye if you happen to watch this one on YouTube of Derek Henry, I believe laughing during the middle of his touchdown in the second half. So far in the shotgun, three receivers to the left. Jackson want to hand it off. Derek Henry up the minute. He's in the 30, 20, leg race, gone. Touchdown, Derek Henry.

And they're going wild at M&T. 44 for the score. I mean, this man is so happy. He's laughing while he's running, and you just kind of have to laugh, seeing these two guys together. I do hope Zay Flowers though is back next week. We don't know as we're taping this show, whether they'll play the Bills or potentially the

Texans, but it's most likely the Bills, obviously, a heavy favorite, which that feels crazy. You always get one divisional round game where you're like, I can't believe these guys are playing each other this early in the playoffs. And that's going to be the one. Yeah. And, you know, what Derek Henry's laughing at could be a lot of different things. It could be, hey, thank God I'm not playing in Tennessee right now. I have a meaningful team to play for here into January.

It could be, hey, thank you for making this so easy that, you know, nearly half of your team ran with Lamar Jackson on this fake. And I could just cut back through the, I think it was the B gap and just run free for a touchdown untouched. I could accelerate through your entire defense without even having to run anybody over. Just the joy. I mean, this was a, this was a game where it felt very fun to be a member of this Ravens office. We saw Anthony Miller, who I did not know was in the league still. catching multiple passes in this game from Lamar Jackson. It really was a, if you are a Lamar Jackson MVP person

and I at the end of the year decided I was one of those people, this was a great case for you. I mean, not only did Lamar Jackson make plenty of plays against a good defense or, you know, on paper a good defense without his top wide receiver, not only did he run the ball effectively, but just his gravity for Derek Henry was on display throughout this game. and we're not going to factor that into his numbers,

but it is a meaningful thing. It is a real thing. It has been a thing all year because he clips most weeks of players on the edge who are just frozen because they don't want to miss out on trying to tackle Lamar. And then Derek Henry runs past them for solid gains. So it has been just a perfect fit in Baltimore. We all had expectations and it's gone even better than any of us could have expected. And yet, you know, next week we'll tell the story.

But we'll have a lot of time to talk about that. Lamar Jackson, by the way, is the first team all-pro quarterback, which generally means you're going to win MVP. Have you actually, have we actually looked at that? I mean, I assume it's likely, but it feels like one of those things that we all take for granted. And I haven't seen anyone actually go back and check and see how often it actually turns into being a true thing. Maybe some people split their votes. Well, yes, I have, it's never really come up where a guy,

gets more votes than the other guy, and then it would flip. But it's also a, it's completely different circumstances now than it's ever been because they never used to have to vote for five different players. And so that does, that does change the math where I guess you could split it. I mean, the Steve McNair, Peyton Manning year, they didn't have the exact same votes. So something changed up. It could change up. You also have Sequin Barclay, like being thrown into the mix.

Some people could say, like Nick Wright pointed this out to me, like some people could say, Lamar Jackson. Jackson's the All-Pro, but Josh Allen's the MVP. That part doesn't make sense, but I could see, you never know, if he won All-Pro by one vote or two votes, and more people had Lamar Jackson fourth or fifth where they had Josh Allen's second, you never know. Let's talk about the Steelers a little bit. Offensively, Russell Wilson played well in the second half of this game.

I did think what the Ravens did coverage-wise in the first half in general, kind of confused him all year he's not really going through his reads very quickly but he threw a lot of beautiful passes in the end you look at his stats it was kind of like a Denver Broncos Russell Wilson game where at the end you're like

oh those stats are pretty good and yet you don't feel like he dominated the game what did you think about Russ I mean what I would say more than anything from the Broncos side from the Steelers side I should say is that it did not feel like Mike Tom and Arthur Smith trusted Russell Wilson at all until they

had no choice but to let him throw the football. I mean, it was a very limited, very conservative game plan. They punted multiple times on fourth and one and fourth and two in the first half of this game when I think a lot of other teams would have been very comfortable going for it. And they didn't even bring on Justin Fields for those situations on fourth and short. You know, certainly when you think about how should I play as an underdog against 18 that has an explosive offense, hold the football. You know, don't put your defense in a compromised position.

And Mike Tomlin did not trust. his team did. Even a week ago, he did trust his team to get aggressive on fourth down and it backfired earlier in that game. And so it really felt like Russ almost succeeded in spite of what the Steelers expectations were. Like I think they, they in this game, I think if the Steelers had won this game, Mike Tomlin believed the best way they were going to do it was we're going to set on the Mar Jackson. We're going to get a turnover or two. And we're going to have as little Russell Wilson in the mix is possible. And

it turned out to be the exact opposite. They had a lot of Russell Wilson because they had no choice. They were down a ton of points. He played pretty well and the defense did absolutely nothing to win them the game for most of the game. So as Russ enters free agency, as we think about what the quarterback situation

looks like for this team next year, nothing about what I saw tonight makes me think the Steelers are desperate to have him back for another go around next year, presumably out of larger salary. Yes. And yet they weren't, they weren't into bringing Justin Fields into the team. Absolutely not. I thought they might. But then it was rewarded. I mean, in the second half, he did everything that you would want Russell Wilson to do. He moved the ball. Now they did have a possession where they had a chance to make it a one

possession game and, and they stalled out. And you mentioned, you know, having, you know, skipping going for fourth and inches in the first half, which is just brutal to have to go for it in fourth and 15. And And then I sent the tweet out that's like, everybody now, like, repeat after me. And you thought I was making fun of you. I was just doing it because, like, we all have sent that tweet at some point. A little too close to the best for me. No, I didn't even know. I mean, yeah, you skipped the early fourth down.

I mean, the Ravens also skipped a fourth and two to start the second half. Maybe they thought they had a 21 nothing lead. But they did go for fourth and about a foot from their own 40 late, up by two scores, which considering where it was in the game and where it was on the field actually was more of a gutsy call if you want to say it and was very smart to go for. What I think happened is that

they punted up, it was 21 nothing at that point I believe when they punted for midfield. And I think John Harbaugh did the, oh, I don't want to give them a spark. I don't want to give them a short field, get them back in the game. And then the Steelers drove like 98 yards for a touchdown anyway. Then he's like, well, screw this.

There's no point in not giving them a spark. I'm just going to go for it. And then they went for it and got it with demark, Andrew Steak, where the Steelers, I think, actually had 12 men on the field. They weren't even prepared for the Ravens going forward on fourth down, which is not a great sign for this coaching staff. You seem to be a little hesitant when I alluded to the idea of Russell Wilson

not being back next year. You're about to push back to it. I just don't know. This is a team that is fine, just running back the same thing year after year and kind of accepting where they are. I think it's why so many people are frustrated. smart Steelers fans and dumb Steelers fans like angry young ones or whatever that are just

oh get rid of this guy it's the same thing every year but i listen to john ledyard he's great and he's frustrated and i think it's fair to question a team that plays the same season over and over and makes the same mistakes and everyone says it's not tomlin's fault because it's the offense and what would you do with this roster and quarterbacks and i just think well tomlin keeps hiring these offensive coordinators, if he is unable to affect change on offense for a long period, that's on him. He's the head coach. He plays the same certain sort of way.

I also think the way he attacks training camp and regular season practices should maybe be looked at because they are the team that is known more than any team to hit training camp harder. And you always get on the teams like the Bengals who don't do anything early and then they start slow. But what about the reverse? Like, this is a team that's always in pads. They're always a train game.

And they always stink in December. Like, this is a, I know they won a few games in the past few years, but like, they've collapsed down the stretch a number of times. I don't know if it's a one-to-one thing. But whatever he's doing isn't working. They consistently play their worst when they even have a decent team late in the season. They did it during the COVID year. They did it this season.

And I don't know. Like, are you just fine with being the 13th? team's best team in the NFL every year because that's basically I I don't I will take issue at this argument yes they did go two and six the year T.J. Wat got hurt to start the season and then got hot at the end of the year. I also think a couple things that factor in there are strength of schedule. The Steelers played the hardest part of their schedule to finish the season this year. Usually the final few weeks of the year you're most likely to play your divisional games and the Steelers play in a very difficult division. So I think you're playing stiffer

competition late in the year. But I did think your point is valid. This question of, you know, is it should you be, should you have higher aspirations than just being a 10 and 7 team and hoping you get in? And the comparison I've seen people make as an argument to fire Mike Tomlin. We watch Mike Tomlin is the comparisons to Andy Reed at the end of his time in Philadelphia, which is not good in terms of comparisons. Andy Reid was like four and 12 his final year when he got fired. He had made the decision to hire Juan Castillo to be his D.C., which went over disastrously. And there's this like, people have convinced themselves that Eagles fans were happy to let Andy Reid leave and left with goodwill.

And it was just time when Eagles fans had been trying to fire Andy Reid for like five years and been furious anytime anyone defended him saying he was never going to, win. I think with Mike Tomlin, like, people have, they've already taken, like, ready to forward. Like, there's already that feeling of, oh, like, we're never going to do it. And to me, I think that's probably unwarranted. He's already done it in the past. We've seen him win with a successful quarterback in the past. We've seen him make the playoff runs in the past. We know he can do it. To me, we're punishing him for being good of this job. Like, like, the reason. I agree. I agree. But, and I would say the coaching element to me is this. How many times do you see a player leave the Steelers and play better?

And how many times do you see a player join the Steelers and play better? Just think about this year. Just think about wide receiver. I mean, Mike Williams was a functional part of this offense for stretches after looking like he had never played football before the Jets. Giante Johnson left the Steelers and was a disaster in multiple spots this year. wide receiver is maybe the most coherent example but this is not a franchise

where players are coming here and getting worse and if you have a guy you absolutely love if you think Arthur Smith is the next great Steelers coach I guess go for no I don't in fact like he got way too much credit this here Arthur Smith like this was a bad offense all year this this their success rate running the ball was was bad all year they were winning on these

these deep balls which at at no point did they have like a sustainable plan and to be clear i i think that mike tomlin is a very good coach that should absolutely keep his job and that any speculation about it in terms of him getting fired is stupid and any speculation on him getting traded is because of mike tomlin's agent so like you can't you can't speak out of both sides of your mouth if you're mike tomlin because this this trade stuff pops up every once in a while and he always gets a new contract out of that. of it. And he likes getting new contracts. Why wouldn't you? He just got a new contract. He just got a new contract with a no trade clause. But they, but they threw that out there again.

Like it came out again and it doesn't come out for no reason. It's maybe it's a waste of time to talk about because I don't really believe that the Roonies would ever consider giving him up and they shouldn't. But I also think it's fair to point out if you're talking about the best coaches in the NFL, an organization that like loses in the same sort of way year out. after a year in the playoffs and isn't competitive when they make it and hasn't won a game in a long time. And in those six straight playoff losses, Bill, that they've had, they've trailed at half time by an average of 15 and a half points. I mean, so it's, it's not just, it's not that they just make it and they don't win. It's that they make it and they're not competitive. And it reminds me

at the end of this season, Bill, because they lost those three games against the best teams in the NFL 90 to 40 and they lost this game 21 and nothing at half time. And yeah, the Bengals game was closer, but that's like an 8 and 8 team. That's just sort of who they are. And so that that's got to be frustrating for their fans. I'm just picturing like the Saints where their entire aspirations are to be the Steelers. Like the idea of being a nine or 10 win team that makes it to the playoffs every year and loses is exactly what their best case scenario is right now. I, I think we're both on the same page. I don't think we think it's Mike Tomlin. But let me ask you, Greg, let's try to be practical here. If you're not moving on from Mike Tomlin, if you're not

trading away Mike Tomlin, what are you doing to break the cycle? What is the move the Steelers make? Because they tried drafting Kenny Pickett. That didn't work. That was clearly a let's try to get our franchise quarterback on the cheap and then we'll build around him with, you know, more talent elsewhere. They have talented dunk players on this roster, no question. They went very cheap, the cheapest quarterback situation in league this year, and that, you know, got them back to where they were. What's the swing you're taking here, a quarterback? What's the move? It's like a different mindset offensively. It's not hiring Matt Canada and Arthur Smith. I don't think Arthur Smith, like, was good for this team. I don't, I wouldn't want to blow it up

necessarily because the offensive line, I think, started to finally make progress. I have invested a lot in in that, and there was progress. Then again, they were one of the worst running games in the entire NFL. So I guess how good is their offensive line? Like, their running game was basically based on their running backs being good and breaking tackles, but they didn't really have anything going

in terms of the blocking scheme. I don't know. We should focus more on these ravens. I mean, you're getting Steve Sims and Tyler Wallace and Anthony Miller out there. We're going to have plenty of time to talk about the Ravens in the weeks to come. The thing that really took me out in the first quarter of this game was the broadcast when first drive of the game for the Steelers to say,

yeah, you're going to see more Jalen Warren today because Mike Toblin said he has the hot hand for them a running back. And I looked it up in Jalen Warren at six carries for 21 yards and no catches the prior week. And that was the hot hand for this offense was a running back averaging, I think, like three and a half yards of carry. It tells you sort of how dire things got for this offense here at the end of the season. I mean, the thing is they got like the most I could have expected out of Van Jefferson

in Calvin Austin. And at times, Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, like they were better. But what, you didn't answer my question. What's the move you're making? Are you, are you taking a quarterback or is this something else? Well, sure. You have to always keep taking swings at quarterback. I think every year in the draft until you have.

have one. So I didn't love this idea. I'd rather have gone with fields. Like, we'll never know. Everyone that apologized after the move to Wilson, ultimately, he was dead last in the NFL in the last five weeks in EPA per play. So I don't, I don't know, like, how, whether it would have been better or worse in the end with, with Russell Wilson or not. But it's, it would have to be like having a totally different offensive, like modern mindset, like that they just, haven't had. They have this weird idea that, hey, we're the Steelers. We want to run the ball. I think it plays, play to our defense, be conservative, and that's it. And those are the types of guys he hired. Like, Arthur Smith sold them on that vision. But when was the last time Arthur Smith

like had a consistently good running team, like in terms of the talent that he had? I don't know. The year before, Bejohn. I mean, to be fair, I think there is an element of the steel, a significant an element of the Steelers fan base that also wants that. Like, I think the, when Steelers fans think about what they want, what their offense to look like, they wanted to look like Jerome Venice. They wanted to look like, you know, Franco Harris. They wanted to be the teams that are running because they're 13 and four and they have a great defense and they are running in the fourth quarter.

They want Smash Mountain football. I think there is a subset that this Karen just wants to win, but I think ideally that is what they want. And so I think they're sort of playing an element of fan service by hiring Arthur Smith. Fair. That's absolutely fair. And like I said, I don't think the Roonies are going to do anything. So we say goodbye to what I think was the worst team in the playoffs, the Steelers.

When you lose four straight games, I mean, I don't think it was, I think them and the Texans were the contenders coming into the day. They were not the contenders coming out of the day. And yes, shout out to all the Ravens who got the job done today, AddafeoA, even Nate Wiggins, who was maybe in single coverage to George Pickens a little too often and was driving Patrick. Claybon crazy. We were texting about it. Madabweke had a nice game. They have a lot of players that are playing better on defense. We'll see if they're good enough next week. And you talked about the Steelers defense not being. Yeah. Like, you talked about the Steelers defense not being prepared enough. This is the last time that we'll hear them this week. But like, Kirk Garp Street, like, doesn't know who the, like, how the playoff seeds work and who's going to

play each other in the playoffs and it's just like a consistent it's a consistent pattern here get myself in trouble no comment no yeah you can't you can't we're moving on all right that is it from baltimore you know before we take a quick break of course we're here in southern california and in l.a all heartbroken by the devastation and destruction from the wildfires here i was driving down the 405 past some of it today and it's crazy. It's still happening. It's still horrifying.

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after the break in Houston. What's up everybody? Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the Sticks, we take you inside the game from scouting reports and player development to team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. Every week, we study the tape, talk to decision makers, and share the insights you won't find anywhere else. It's the kind of conversation that connects the dots, from college football prospects to the NFL

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or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. Stroud gets under center, fourth and one at the 17-yard line of the Chargers. CJ hands off to Mix and running left has the 15, 10, mix it across the 5, mix it to the pylon, mix it to the end zone. Celebrate Mixon on fourth down. Tatered. And the Texans have their lead extended. 17-yard touchdown run.

I think he just started the H-Town leap. That was Joe Mixin. That was Mark Vandermere and Andre Ware on K-I-L-T. 32 to 12. A score of Gami in the playoffs. And a score it got me in a situation where it felt like if any team was going to win 3212 in this game for most of the first half, it felt like the Chargers were going to be that team. It was absolutely crazy. I almost can't believe looking at the final scores and even the final numbers where the Texans end up with 429 yards and the Chargers end up with 261.

Like, I can't believe that's how it ended because it just didn't feel that way for most of the game. And if you look at the success rates for the two teams, they're actually pretty similar. for a lot of it, but that drive, and I wanted to start there, Bill, was one of the most surprising drives I've ever seen. To see the 2024 Houston Texans, maybe they're turning a new leaf like in the actual new year, run the ball. I believe it was 14 straight times to end that drive. It was a 14 play drive where they threw the ball on the first play and then ran it 13 consecutive times to finish up. So that's why they're not also in the 13 for 13 club. It was 13 for 14. Right. I have not been more surprised by a drive all season, considering how ineffective the

Texans have been running the ball all year. And yet at that point, it was like the Chargers defense, which were absolutely ready for this game. It was a good defensive game. They just sort of gave out. And Houston was just much too much for them. And that place was rocking. And the Texans are going to the divisional round for the second. straight year. Yes. And, you know, I think there was an element of being tired. They've been on the field so often because their offense was either scoring really quickly or turning the ball over really quickly or going three and out. I don't know what the play disparity was in this game. And certainly the Chargers had a lot of plays early before the Texans then took over and

sort of controlled the ball. That final drive at the end of the first half, we could also talk about as a you know a season saving drive in some ways for the Houston Texans um I mean this this game was there it was there for the taking for the chargers there is a a version of this game where instead of getting stuffed on third and one on the first drive they convert they score a touchdown when they've been moving the ball really effectively Texans turn the ball over immediately give them a short field they score another touchdown um they get the ball back again after a strout they dropped a strout interception um and then they get a stride interception. They have another short field. They score on that. It's 21-0. I mean,

they could have taken over this game. And there's a lot of, like, you know, a lot of me filling in the blanks for this offense, which is maybe undeservedly, given that they really did struggle for the majority of this game. But we see this happen in games where you give a team a couple short fields and the game's over. And, you know, there would have been no 13 play run drive down 21-0. I think that the, the Texans defense did such a heroic job of saving this game long enough for the offense to finally get going. And once it did, it felt like the Chargers didn't have many answers outside of the occasional turnover. Yeah, it's all really well said. I want to blame the Chargers on one hand for having in their first 10 drives of the game

under 150 yards with three interceptions and a fumble that they picked up the fumble and one third down six points in one of in the one of the field goals was a 12 yard drive that was just you know set up by by one of those turnovers i want to blame the charges offense but one of the reasons i i actually thought this was a good game it was obviously like a west of this game that is you know for those who are new to the show uh the early saturday afternoon game which our our dear friend chris wesling dubbed west of this which is when andy dalton and the bengals would traditionally lose, although at some point in there,

they started playing the Texans, and the Texans just took over that time slot. They've lost to TJ Yates, I believe. That was the JJ Watt Pick Six game, I think, was the turning point. That was the turning point. I was at a game that Brock Osweiler started against Connor Cook,

which is in the mix for the worst starting quarterback matchup in the history of the NFL, certainly in the 21st. century, which is more about passing. And they won that game. It was the first ever home victory by the Texans. At some point, it switched to the Texans. And they own this slot. They are now six and two. What? Why were you at that game of all games? For like a year or two, my old boss at the NFL wanted me to get out on the road more and they were sending me to playoff to playoff games. And yes, I was the Houston, Texas. I was the Houston, Texas.

or Cincinnati Bengals of NFL.com column writers. I, you know, I'll respect Jeffrey Chidia, Judy Batista. They deserve their spot in line. They were doing it all season long. And so I was fourth in line. Maybe it was Weish as the other one. But yes, I would go to the worst games, usually at the weekend. And they won that game.

They were now six and two in these games. And for all, and I know I'm talking about it, for all the blame I want to put on the Chargers defense, offense. I just think this was an incredible defense by the Texans. Like, sometimes that really can happen. And for a while, the Chargers defense was playing incredible this game. You mentioned the third and short that they don't pick up. Well, who's making the stop there? That was Kalin Bullock. Their young safety, I believe, was in on that stop. It's passes defense. Darrell Stingley ends up with five passes defense in this game, an incredible interception. Camari

Lasseter has an incredible interception. Autry is making plays all over the place. Will Anderson really save them early in this game. Like they all just were taking turns, making incredible plays. And they were just obviously better schematically and talent-wise than the Chargers' offense was on this day. Yeah. And that's a surprise because the Chargers, whatever we want to say about their offensive

abilities are a well-coached offense generally. But I think we saw a game plan that really hit the weakness. of the Chargers heart and that was a lot of twists with their star edge rushers so not just rushing them one-on-one against the strengths of the Chargers their offensive tackle a lot of them getting them inside getting them against the offensive guards getting them against the centers getting them against the running backs um that worked really well there was a lot of flush justin herbert in this game um we saw a lot of doubling of lad beconki derrick stanley did not travel in the slot with lad beconkey but this was you know they don't play a lot of man

coverage in this game. I played a decent amount, but it wasn't like they were, you know, the 2016 Patriots when he came to man coverage. But I think there was that element of the same philosophy of, okay, Ladd-McConkey, we're going to try and double him with our guys on the interior, get him a safety over the top of Ladd-McConkey, get a linebacker to help. And then we trust Derek Stingley is going to take whoever's on his side of the field and shut them down. And that was a, that was the key part of this game in a lot of ways, is that the Chargers repeatedly tried to go at Derek Stingley and time after time

were rejected. I mean, not only did Derek Stanley have a couple of two interceptions in this game, one of which was on a will-dissly drop,

the other one on a great play on a throw-down field, but to me, one of the biggest plays of the game was that fourth down the charges went for where Lid McConkey

is not open. The chargers have seven in protection. They send three guys out, and their only option was to throw a pivot route to Quentin Johnston against Derek Stigley and all pro cornerback

where not only to Quentin Johnston run a a half yard route on fourth and two where even if he caught it he would have been short of the sticks but then he also did not complete the catch and it was an incompletion as well so just a you know just a if you can get your best player against a wide receiver three caliber receiver

and on a fourth down that's a win for you in defense so I think the Texans really gave the chargers the answers they wanted them to take and then exploited those answers with their best players. So Quentin Johnston, who had the best game of his career last week, it really was the Quentin Johnson's game. I don't know what it was. It was like eight for 197 or something insane. Didn't have a catch on five targets today. To go to the rest of the, the Chargers receivers, for non-Lad-McConkie targets, they had 45 yards on 8. 18 targets.

McCawke goes 9 for 197 and 1, including that incredible touchdown. And you can blame that completely on all the other receivers. Justin Herbert obviously bears plenty of blame in this game. It ends up with four interceptions. It's more than he had all season long.

And yet, I do think about that play. That's a good example. It's their lack of talent to win a one-on-one matchup. It's Quentin Johnson. running a bad route, you can't really blame Herbert there for throwing it to him because he's got to assume his receiver. That was the only option. Right, is making it.

That said, where you could blame him a little bit on that play, maybe is you got seven in to protect, and I know he hadn't been protected great that game, he doesn't try to become a playmaker too often. Like the ball was still out of his hands quickly and seeing the matchup that he had and there wasn't a lot of separation there. It's a split-second decision. But what C.J. Stroud did well in this game more than anything, I thought, was run the ball and make a couple of plays to help turn this game around.

And when it's not going well for Herbert, that does stand out that he doesn't do a lot of playmaking. So that's one pick you could knit here along with the four interception. It's a tough week out here for Herbert, the Herbert Hive. I mean, it's going to be a tough six months. It was weird because he did do that more during the regular season. That was one of the welcome benefits of Justin Herbert this year was that he was running more. And it felt like that was something that he was being encouraged to do by the Chargers.

And I want to go back, you know, it's Saturday night. I want to go back on Sunday or more realistically maybe Monday and watch this game again and see if those opportunities were there. You would figure they were. But the interceptions, yes, the Will Disley pick is not on Justin Herbert. But I got three that are, and that's the entirety he had of all season that were bad decisions, bad throws. I mean, that first pick, every bit of a 2019 Josh Allen, we're all laughing on social media. What is this guy doing pick?

After a interception of Justin Stratt, for CJ Stratt, excuse me, you have, you know, you're going to take a shot. I understand that. you're throwing across your body um you know from the the right side numbers to the left side sideline no window is there like the best case scenario was it's going incomplete like just a bad decision just a decision you cannot make as a great quarterback as a quarterback expecting to win a playoff game and the disheartening thing is now i think we're going to go back to this regular season, and people are going to look at what Justin Herbert did, and his numbers are not great this year. I mean, he had a incredible interception rate, but his first down rate is

yards per attempt. Everything else was okay, some above average, a little bit below average in some places. It took too many sacks, especially sacks that got him injured, where he was needlessly extending plays. There's going to be a real reflection on Justin Herbert. I don't think they're going to make any changes, obviously. But I think, you know, there was a lot of goodwill built up for Justin Herbert over the course of this season that to me Barnel's coming out hard

he's coming out swinging for Herbert what am I saying here that's crazy this man more receptions of the playoff came through the entire season but this was an issue all year like that was propping him up all season was an incredibly low interception rate

and that's unsustainable we know I thought he managed games really well all year their offensive line was okay this year their running game was miserable for the most part and was miserable

in this game, one of the lowest success rates. 16 for 48 from the running backs. Yeah, all season long, they had one of the lowest success rates in the NFL, and they couldn't run the ball today either outside of that first drive. And even that first drive, it ends on a third and one that gets blown up. And it even reminded me a last week against, like, the Raiders. Like, they couldn't, they couldn't get a third and one early in, or second and one, third and one, early in that game. And that was them all season.

And so the running game, it stunk. It's not, it doesn't mean that it's an excuse for Herbert, but they, you know, Greg Roman without a running game is like, what do you got here? Right. That's what I was going to say is, you know, you bring in Greg Roman. That's what he's there for. That's what he's supposed to do is fix your running game. And I understand this was not a running game that had a Lamar Jackson as an active participant, didn't have a Colin Kaepernick as an active participant or a Tyrod Taylor. They didn't have the quarterback run game factored in, but Greg Roman was still supposed to be able to build a.

coherent run game around the pieces he had. And I think we all love seeing J.K. Dobbins to have a great start to the season. But he had two 100-yard games to start the year and didn't have another one the rest of the way. I mean, they were very inconsistent running the football. And that led to a lot of wasted drives. And in this game, Herbert missed throws. He made mistakes. He had some really good throws, of course, as well.

It's not like he was completely terrible. But, you know, it felt like they did not have the ability to, rely on the run game when they needed it. No, but the numbers, the numbers are crazy. Now, if you go through the four interceptions, yeah, that first, that first pick, terrible decision, but an awesome play out of Lasseter. Yeah. Like, these Texans cornerbacks are really good.

It's the best young secondary in the league by far. I mean, that might be the best cornerback duo in the league. It's in the mix right now, Lasseter. Eagles fans are going to be very much. Just because Stingley is that good right now. Like they're in the mix. But in terms of a young secondary, okay, that's fair, the Steelers.

But I'm including Jalen Petrie, who is awesome this year, and he's out, he's out, and I think, is he out for the season? He's not coming back. He's out for the season, yeah. But Kaelin Bullock's been great, and like, that reminds me of another play

from recent weeks. Like, when he has a chance to make the catch, he makes it. Now you got the Eric Murray, pick six. That was more of just Herbert's a little rush, a little crowded in the pocket, throws it a little high,

and it goes through McConkey's hands, but it's a high throw. They were forcing him to try to make touch passes. That really wasn't one of them, and that's not like something he does that well. And the other interception, what I'm trying to say is sometimes you have opportunities to make an interception and you don't make them.

Those weren't the easiest ones ever, and they did make them, whereas the Chargers, for instance, as you mentioned, like second drive of the game, they drop a potential Stroud interception, I mean, hell, the Chargers did turn the ball over three times. The first freaking play of the game is a, is a fumble that they force on a short catch. Like, and it doesn't matter.

The Texan defense just was ready for all of it. Yeah, I mean, yes, there was pressure in Justin Herbert's lap on that overthrow for the pick six. It's also a throw into the flat. Like, you can dirt it. You can put it in a place where it's not going to be, that they're going to be a short catch or an incompletion. There's lots of things you can do. What you cannot do is sell it over your wide receiver's head. And this is not, you know, this is not Bo Nix.

This is not year one. Let's see what this guy does. It's not Caleb Williams. This guy is in, what, his fifth, six season? Yeah, his fifth season. As a pro, like, he's on a second contract. He is getting the hype as a superstar quarterback. Like, like, you can't make that third.

You cannot miss that threat under any circumstances. That is a, like, that, that, I cannot think of another quarterback. I'm sure you'll show someone up clip for me tomorrow, but like that is a throw you can not make as a franchise quarterback in that situation. Like you have to be able to either escape that pressure or be smart with the football and smart with your placement. And he was not. And it, it basically ended the game as a contest.

Yeah. Out of playoff games, I think it was your friend, uh, Seth Walder, right, that he put it out that out of 214 playoff appearances. I think Shil Kapitia. was it was it shield that put this out that that justin herbert was 213th in EPA per play so it's got to be a rough off season i think he's a top 10 quarterback i think he played like a top 10 quarterback this season it's absolutely fair through five seasons to think that the promise of his rookie year that he was going to be right there with the top guys in the league he's obviously not with the top guys in

the league can he can he get there eventually yeah like it's possible but he obviously is not in that top-tier group. And yet, despite all this, Bill, like, this was absolutely a game that I still thought the Chargers were going to win when it was 6-0 late in the second quarter. Let's take back, let's think about where the Texans were. They had the ball pretty much coming out on their own goal line. Were they on the two-yard line? Everyone thought they were probably going to, like, take a safety there. Everyone's making the same joke. Like, here comes the safety. CJ Stroud.

There was an intentional grounding call, right? That's what I was going to say. Oh, sorry. Excuse me. That call, to me, or non-call, was almost as big as the third and 16 play

where Stroud scrambles after he, you know, trails after a bad snap and hits the third and 16 play to kickstart that two-minute drive. He is flushed. he's in the pocket, he throws it out of bounds. And when they showed that replay, at least from that angle, it looked like he was in the pocket to me, but it was close.

Those are tough calls to make. They didn't make the call, but that would have made it 8-0 with under two minutes to go and them clicking up. Instead, they get another chance. He has a third and 16 play, and it's just like a scramble play. And it was almost like that moment, Bill, C.J. Stroud, like, he couldn't think because he's just running after a ball. And the game is about to end. He's running after it. And he finally just makes a play and gets a big first down.

And after that, it was like he locked in and he was the CJ Stroud for the most part that you would want to see. There were a couple little blips. But like he starts hitting a ton of inbreakers. Yeah. I actually went and looked at it on next gen. I tried to like, you know, chart it out. And I think it was the right call. I think it was good to hear.

It was either the right call or it was close enough that I cannot fault them for not making the call. And my first instinct was that it was grounding. So I feel like not going to put the refs down too much for that. But I see what you're saying. And I don't disagree to one extent. But when it's 8-0 and you're getting the ball back, your instinct is, okay, we can score a touchdown and make it 15-0 and then we're in great shape.

But nothing the Chargers did. You think that they were going to score. That's the only part that I find difficult. to believe is that, okay, if it was going to be a defensive touchdown, maybe that would have got them a 15-0. But it felt like even when they got short fields in this game, they were not able to do anything with them. And so to me, you know, the defense was going to have to win in this game. And like you said, one Stroud hits that play. It felt like so much of what the Chargers were doing was just taking away stuff over the top. I think they were playing, you know,

very conservative shells on defense. I think they wanted their pass rush to get home and say that'd be the focal point of the defense. They did lose Denzel Perryman early in this game. Well, there's not a great coverage linebacker. He's more of a run-blocking linebacker. So I don't think that made a big difference. But like you said, Nico Collins just got open over and over and over again on in breaking runs.

They had Christian Fulton covering him a lot. And it felt like Fulton was not up to the task necessarily. But I think in the big picture, the thing I would say is just this. this is a very top heavy Texans team. They have some very mediocre plays and meaningful roles there. Some guys who have been banged up because of injury who are playing more than they should because of injuries.

Like they have their stars. They have Collins. They have Stroud. They have the defensive ends with Hunter and Anderson. They have Stingley and then to a lesser extent they have, maybe not to a lesser extent, but they have Lasseter and they have Bullock and the secondary. And all of those guys were awesome in this game. And

that is the difference. The, the, the, the, the, were able to attack the weakest parts in the Chargers roster. And so many times the Chargers were stuck trying to attack the strengths of this Texans team and we're not able to do so. Will Anderson ended up with six quick pressures in this game. So that's under two and a half seconds. Like that's just like an epic performance. Seven overall.

Both Daniel Hunter and Danico Atry both had five pressures in this game. And three for Hunter were quick. So do you remember the two plays before? for the crazy McConkey touchdown. Okay, let's play it. So this is one of the craziest four-play sequence. Our producer, Eric, had some fun putting this together. Just sit back and enjoy.

Empty backfield for Herbert. First down from the Charger, first. Aziz looks like he's coming. Three receivers to the left side, wide side of the field. Aziz drops back. Here comes Will, the Terminator with a sack on Herbert. Second and 17 from the Charger 23. Here's Herbert in the backfield.

Again, Mario gets back there. they blast Herbert for another sack back to back this is an onslaught by the texans defensive front third and forever third and 26 down 23 to 6 herbert to throw steps up in the pocket mcconkey with a grab and macakey to the race is 50 40 mcconkey 30 20 10 touchdown chargers on a third and 26 86-yard touchdown. Dicker the kicker. Between the hashes with the spot, J.K. Scott will hold as the Chargers get the block kick here.

And it's batted down by Dicker. And the Texans are on the move with it. It's still alive. Being brought back across the 30. 2010. DeAngelo Ross all the way to the house. as the Texans get too unbelievable. Yes, that was the four-play sequence.

Sack, sack. It's 23 to 6, by the way, at this point, like early in the fourth quarter. Long Mekonki touchdown, that was for 86 yards. A great throw by Herber. I mean, it could have gone either way, but it got through. McConkey's so freaking good.

He ends up nine for 197. And then, yes, the blocked extra point, which I don't know how the Nickelodeon crew was on it, but I think it confused the regular CBS crew of like, wait, does this count? I mean it confused the players as two either. And I think if it gets past the line of scrimmage, it doesn't count, but it doesn't matter because it's blocked before the line of scrimmage and then they return it. And it would have been a 10 point game.

Like you said, I don't think the Chargers defense was going to come back enough in this game. But that's about as wild a four-play sequence as you will ever see. That was fun. Yeah. And I think it's an example of everything you might want to. confirm about the Chargers offense I mean first two plays

two just immediate sacks I mean just no protection whatsoever I would guess the first is on Justin Herbert it looks like he's hot off the right side there again I want to see what the tape says but it looks like there's three people coming to that side so he should be hot

doesn't have an answer takes a sack immediately from Will Anderson second play nobody blocks anybody it feels like four people breakthrough and then just Justin Herbert's saying screw it I'm just throwing it as hard as can to the only receiver I trust and either he's going to come down with it or I'm going to throw a pick, but I don't want to get hit on this play. And then the Dicker play, which Dicker's going to get a ton of criticism for knocking the ball down. If you see J.K. Scott

on this play, he sees the Texans recover it and does not break into anything more than the lightest of jogs. I think he thought the play was over. I think other players on the Chargers team thought this play was over. It was like, what did they, was it was the fair kick? What did they run a couple weeks ago. Yes. The Chargers where they had the free kick. Free kick.

Yes. Yes. They felt like the opposite of the free kick where like the free kick was, you know, the Chargers were geniuses. The special teams were so well prepared.

This was the exact opposite. It felt like they were not prepared for the situation whatsoever and it came back to bite them and cost them two points at the worst possible time. Yes. And they didn't do anything

when they got the ball again anyways and they also couldn't get off the field. as the Texans are just running the ball over and over and over. I will say I thought of a comp today for Ladd-McConkie. Just in terms of how people talk about him, I was convinced after Nico's kind of breakout year that, like, coming into this year, that he was still weirdly undervalued,

that that contract was one of the best contracts in the entire NFL because he's like a top 10 type of receiver. And I don't think people quite saw him that way the Texans knew. And he is. I mean, we saw that again, when he's on the field this year, He is absolutely electric. There's nothing that he can't do. He ends up with seven for 122 and one.

He can do it all. I think Ladd-McConkie is going to be a top 10 NFL receiver. There's this weird thing because he's so small that people just immediately like, oh, as long as you get someone with him, he'll be fine. What doesn't he do? He wins on the outside. He wins contested catches. He is electric in terms of his short area quickness, but he has long speed.

If you watch the second half of this season, there's so many catches like that. that where he is leaping, and he's not mossing guys because of his size, but he's winning at the catch point. As long as he stays healthy, and he stayed healthy this year, I don't see why he isn't a guy that can't put up even better numbers than he did this year. And they were absolutely electric, and you can build a passing game around him. It's just, you need more than just one guy. You need, like Nico needs this year, his guys are hurt. You need to get more guys around him. But Ladd McConkey is that good. He's one of the better, like, rookie receiver seasons we've seen in a while. The problem is he's surrounded by all these other great

rookie receivers. That's a tough part, though, is that he did this with nobody around him this year. And that's the big offseason project for the Chargers is getting more playmakers, whether it be a running back, whether it be a tight end, whether it be hopefully at wide receiver. It stinks because you're basically writing off the first round pick the prior regime used on Quentin Johnson and sort of not relying on him. They tried. They tried to make it work this year he was he was okay you know he had some terrible games that raven's game i think was really awful um i don't think you want to run it back next year needing quentin johnson to be your wide receiver too i think if he's in the mix it's fine but i think they i so many teams are going to

try and get t higgins but they need somebody else who could win on the outside so mcconkey can be you know poor man cd lamb on the inside sure and but maca yeah that's a fair comparison i mean I mean, he's obviously not going to be as physical. And maybe it is the size, and maybe because he struggled staying healthy at Georgia, and it felt like every game he was kind of limping to the sideline this year. But then you look at what he actually just did. And I couldn't be more impressed. I would absolutely take him in a redraft over Marvin Harrison, Jr. Romadunzi.

It's not even close because this tape matters more. And to me, he showed wide receiver one NFL tape. I would still take Brian Thomas over him. Like, I love Brian Thomas. Malik Neighbors is awesome. so whatever you could you could choose but like he's a that's not bad being now being right up there with league neighbors and brian thomas is not exactly right and i wouldn't argue like if you were like this this guy fits what we want to do like he he he is absolutely a dude so is neco

colin so is cj strad i hope i hope he locks in a little bit one thing that really struck me was a really key sequence at the end of the first half after the texans score their first touchdown they're hitting all those nico collins um in breakers They get one for a touchdown. The Chargers get the ball back. They're trying to, the Chargers actually took what I thought was a smart time out late in the Texans drive to try to save themselves time. And it paid off. They have a decent amount of time.

But they go three and out. And they give the ball right back to the Texans who get a field goal that was really keyed by a CJ Stroud scramble. And that was the first big scramble. And DeMico Ryan's was shown on the sideline at that point yelling, that was really, that. That's what I'm effing talking about. That's what I'm effing talking about. And he was so happy that Stroud just finally ran because he's so just loath to run all season.

And then the second half of the game, he really ran a lot. The dude can't slide. I don't know what's up with that. But it was a big part of this game, him picking up first downs and then just kind of like falling forward in a way that made him look like he was going to get hurt.

It still counts. So long as you don't break your ankle sliding. It's good. I mean, that's never going to be the full. point of his game, but it gives you the opposing team something to think about. I'm guaranteed the Chargers did not come into this game thinking, okay, we have to be prepared for the possibility of spying C.J. Stroud. Like, we can control him in the pocket. We're good. That never came up. And it absolutely mattered. And now, whoever they play next week has to be prepared for that.

They have to think, okay, like, C.J. Stroud's going to go if we don't have eyes on him. That's going to change the way they rush the passer. We're going to change the way they play coverage. it opens up a lot of things. There's a reason that a lot of the best quarterbacks and football are devastating scramblers because it is a button you can press that picks up easy yards, helps you convert third and longs,

and changes the way people cover you on defense. What did you think, like overall, does this give you optimism that the Texans offense specifically could play well enough to win another game? Because the defense, this is one of the best defensive performances you could possibly have. To ask this again is too much, but they could be the best defense left in the playoffs

if they just went on a tear. I'm not expecting them to be. I'm just saying, like, we've seen that happen. A defense gets really hot. Now, can the offense, do you think, play well enough to give them a real chance to beat these better teams? they prove that they could do it for a half or for a little over a half of football they were incredible on offense outside of the turnovers which they lost a fumble and they nearly

threw an interception to derwin james they tried their best it was more of a good play by derwin james and a bad through by c j stroud but this offense had been so inconsistent and so frustrating all season they've been stuck in third and long so many times times. And eventually they're going to hit a couple third and longs, and they did in this game. But to me, they were so bad early in this game. Like, they could have thrown a couple interceptions. They lost a fumble. They looked like they were on the same page. Like, Stroud's throws. Nobody was even near them early in this game. He seems as streaky as any quarterback in the league that he can be in his own head where he just can't think straight. And then like something happens. And then he clicks in it and he's CJ Stroud again for the rest of the game. or for a couple quarters, and they have some good drives. But I still have my doubts. I mean, even during that second half run where they were coming back, you know,

they had the fumble. They had a second in 40 situation, which you don't see too often. They also had a second in one at the four-yard line where they ended up settling for a field goal. That was a four-play one-yard drive where they go backwards. That was like, so even,

During this run, I don't know. It's a little hard for me to see this offense getting it going, but you have a quarterback that you have a chance. But I had no faith in them being good on offense heading into the postseason. And now I'm still skeptical, but at least I saw them be good for a half. That's a half more than I had seen from them for the vast majority of this season against good football teams. And the vibes are good.

Let's actually listen just quickly to Will Anderson post-game with Omar Ruiz. Congratulations, Will. That one game season continues. Yes, sir, it does. Thank you. Let's go Texas! I love a little bit of that. I also love the locker room, which we don't have clearance for that.

D'Amico Ryan's comes in. And one of the first things he says to the team is, how about that bye week in reference to Rex Ryan? a lot of the players were talking about some comments that I wasn't even aware of until then that Rex Ryan said it was going to be, or until recently, yeah, that was going to be a bye week

but that was a rallying cry for this team. The dismissal from your colleague, I know you can't talk. I would never, I would never comment on that. I mean, we saw the who is it, the Vikings and Lions, the Rams

have the Kevin O'Connell. We're going to see you in, you know, in two weeks. But Dan Campbell's the one who said it. What is this? What is this second hand, like, trash stock that I've never heard of, like, secondhand trash stock. Rex Ryan, I get, it's just like someone from the media. You can yell at the media. People do that.

But this was Dan Campbell that said, see you in two weeks. But somehow that they're mad at Dan Campbell, I guess. It feels like we're finding very innocuous stuff to push back on. Or even collateral damage. Like, you know, I can end up as bulletin board material for a different team. I trace this back to the Tom Brady. Everyone says we suck comment where it turned no one could possibly find anyone saying the Patriots suck that year. But I'm sure there was like someone on Reddit saying that they sucked and that was enough for Tom Brady.

Well, they'll have plenty more people to find as doubters going into next week. Before we get out of here, let's at least, we'll hear from Justin Herber. I fear for this tall, handsome man's off season. Yeah, it's tough. You know, I let the team down in. You can't turn over the ball like that and expect to win and put the team into a tough position there with four turnovers like that.

So, you know, the defense hung tough. They got some turnovers. They gave us opportunities, but I just have to be better. Nope. You know, it's just on me to protect the ball and be better about that. You know, it was aggressive downfield and you've got to do a better job of getting the ball out,

throw it away, or better ball placement. on me. Some of the numbers were just crazy. Like over 10 yards, six for 17 against pressure. He started out one for 10. He started out one of 11. The 11th was the pick six. Yeah. I mean, listen, he's a, I don't want to be part of the Justin Herbert Culture War. I have felt the same about him for several years. I think he is very talented. I think the results are not always there. I think he has the ability to be a franchise quarterback. He has never had a season as good as many of his peers in that draft class. It's not making him a bad quarterback.

But we have been sitting here for many years now waiting for him to have an MVP caliber season. And he's never really come close. And that's fine. But I think we have to be realistic about what the guy is versus what I think we want him to be or hoping he's going to be. Not Herbo Beast. Yeah. So the Jim Harbaugh initial season for the Chargers somehow ends up feeling a little more similar to how a lot of Chargers seasons ended.

You take it. If you were a Chargers fan this time last year, we said, you're going to the playoffs. You'd be fine. Of course. They won a couple games at the end of the season. The game against the Broncos was great. I mean, it was a step forward. The schedule was easy and we'll get harder.

but they definitely took a step forward. They were a disaster last year, and so to make the playoffs at all is a big step. But they were road favorites here, and they did not get it done. You were one of my favorites, Bill. I appreciate you coming on for the first time we've ever done this. Like a Saturday night playoff recap,

and appreciate everyone who came into the chat. A lot of people watching live. Got to check out the Bill Barnwell podcast. guess where else you're going to be this week around the NFL, I mean, around the horn. Oh, there, there's a Freudian slip. Yes, I'll be on around the horn this week. Probably talking about Justin Herbert some more, probably SportsCenter this weekend. We will see plenty of stuff to discuss here. And the ESPN plus, everyone, as I say, it's worth it just for Bill. You just, it's worth it for Bill and the Australian Open like court 14

Keenichikori match that I'm going to watch if he's still playing, although he was down two sets when I went into this. Let's get out of here. Thank you, Eric. We will be back on Sunday night recapping those three games. It'll be with Patrick Claibon, Nick Shook, maybe a special guest. Thanks again, as always, to Will Barnwell. Yes, when the chargers are chartering right out of the playoffs, you know football is back. See you Sunday. Hey everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here.

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