NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Wild Card Sunday Recap and Patriots Hire Vrabel

Episode Date: January 13, 2025

Gregg Rosenthal is joined by Patrick Claybon, Nick Shook, and Kevin Patra to recap all of Sunday's Wild Card action. First, a look at Commanders at Buccaneers (01:43), followed by Packers at Eagles (22:10), and Broncos at Bills (41:03), before the crew reacts to the Patriots hiring Mike Vrabel as their new head coach (57:55). 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. Welcome to NFL Daily, where we're all just thinking about what we were doing in January of 2000. Six. That was the last time the Washington commanders, the Washington franchise won a playoff game, and they've done it again. I'm here in the Chris Wesleying podcast studio for the first time since Tuesday when these fires changed a lot of our lives here in Los Angeles. And I'm happy to be talking football tonight with three of my friends, Patrick Claibon in the studio with me. Nick Shook, as always, on remote from Cleveland. And for the first time ever, Kevin Patra coming at you in the Chris Wesleying podcast studio. Welcome to have you. It's a beautiful place.

It is a really nice studio. And I know you spent the day here just grinding on the computer. And you're up here for a family wedding. And it's great to see you, my friend. It's great to be here. It's an interesting time to be out in California. But, you know, life goes on. It is an interesting time.

We'll put a button in that. We'll see if I get stopped after I enter the evacuation zone after curfew tonight. But it is great to talk about these games. Patrick, we were adding it up. We have 50 years of NFL experience, NFL employee experience between the four of us tonight. So I think we'll be able to make sense of this insane Washington. Yes, the survivors is what we are. And we'll celebrate the teams that did and look back at some teams that had some chances, but did not.

Okay, no more foreplay. Let's go to Tampa Bay where, yes, we're going to hear from Bram Weinstein at least one more time this season. You couldn't ask for a better script than this right here. From 37 in the left hash mark, Tyler Rott's the snapper. Tressway will hold.

Zane Gonzalez, looking to send Washington into the divisional round. Snap good, hold down, kick on its way. It is good. The car. Are you at commanders or the clutch commanders? They do it again.

We'll see you in Detroit. And Diane Gonzalez kicks in the door. It kicks us into the second wall on the playoffs. I love it. London Fletcher. He announces like he plays. Man, what a game. Commanders, Buccaneers.

Saving, frankly, a two-game slate where we just didn't have enough close game. games. We had a lot of good stories. We set up some great games next week, but we needed a juicy game, and this was it. Jaden Daniels does what he does, which is win the game in the final seconds with a late drive that included a screen pass that for a brief second, I thought was going to be a game-changing interception by Yaya Diabi, but it wasn't. It was a completion. Like so many of his passes, right on the money. And the commanders get it done. So much to talk. about here, Shuki, let's start by giving the rookie his flowers before diving into what went

wrong for the Bucks who had a tricky fourth quarter. This is a wagon of an offense and for the commanders to hold them to 20 points. A lot needed to happen. Self-inflicted wounds and some good plays by the commander's defense. But ultimately, on a night where Jaden Daniels throws for two touchdowns, he throws the ball 35 times, he runs it 13 times, not that effective. A couple touchdowns doesn't make any big mistakes. He does it again. And he is the first rookie to win a road playoff game since Russell Wilson did it back in 2012. It is difficult to do. Yeah, also in that group, Mark Sanchez, but that story was different. This, you know, it was about the big plays in key moments for Jane Daniels. Yeah,

the rushing wasn't very effective. But when they needed a first down late, he was the guy who was able to kind of feel out the defense and then hit the edge and dive across the line to gain for a key first down. He was the guy who was able to bounce back from failing and turning it over on downs on what probably should have been pass interference in the end zone but wasn't called, they get a second opportunity down there and they find a way to convert, throws a nice pass over the middle amid the rush and everything else. That is the type of moxie and experience and composure that you get from a veteran, not from a rookie, and it fits this season. You know, they ran a little montage of all the last second wins they've had this season

and there's Daniels making a play and there's Daniels making to play. And then he made another play tonight in a key spot to tie the game and get them down the field for that eventual game-winning field goal, the doink for the win, which was just perfect for this team that has done it so many times. But they wouldn't be here without him, and he rose to the occasion. Right. You put it really well that he does play like a veteran. I think all the way back, I always like to think about how the game start. The very first third down of the game, they dialed up the perfect blitzpatcher, and they get a hit on Jaden Daniels, and he just stands in there and hits a dime and a great catch by Terry McLaurin, and they had that 17 play

drive. And there is something about him. Coliza Cancy almost had him down on that final drive where they could have forced the longer field goal or maybe not even a field goal and had more time. And he just gets out of the way. So many times tonight and so many times the season, it felt like the other defense had the perfect play called. And he just finds a way to beat it. He must be one of the most frustrating quarterbacks to play against because of that fact that you're right there. Klaiza Kansi he literally played flag football with his towel and then kept it and kept running with the towel, which I thought was pretty funny. And then, like, so many times during the game, you're like, oh, they're going to get

them on, they're going to sack him. But he slides to his left and then finds Terry McCorn, slides to his right. Diami Brown's going off this game. Like, he can get out of the pocket. He's slippery and you have to be wary of his feet. Even though he didn't have a lot of yards today, he slipped out of tackles and he kept plays alive. And extending plays against the defense with a secondary that's battered, it makes all the

difference in the world. Yeah, the huge Diami Brown game, and including that big. catch on that final drive where it was jaden's feet that that had the the buck's defense so concerned where it was a double spy as colmper pointed it out on the call there are two guys in zone in the middle of the field watching jaden daniels allowing uh diami brown to come free on this backside dig that was also kind of thrown past a defender's ear hole uh by the way on an offense that was eight of 15 on third down and then you have to factor in that they went for it and got it three times on fourth down throughout the game, which is how this wagon of a Tampa

Bay offense only ends up with 44 offensive plays, Greg, because that time of possession was 35 minutes to 24 minutes in favor of the commanders. They couldn't get back on the field. And when they did, they have to take advantage of those opportunities. And Baker had a boot for the ages. Yes. That really cost me. We'll get to that. And I am biased. I like this Buccaneers offense. I thought it was a wagon. I, I, I, I, liked watching it, but this was the perfect way to beat them, especially with a flawed defense, which I think we can say Washington have. It's a team that despite not really having a running game for a while. Brian Robinson goes 10 for 16 today. They can't run the ball. They just can't.

Right. Eckler adds a little juice because he's good in the receiving game and he made a couple plays, but he wasn't any better. And yet, because of Jaden's threat, like you think of the play to Diami Brown, which set up an earlier score where he stepped up. up and the two defenders kind of step up to him as he's approaching the line of scrimmage and he hits him deep. You think about just the small margins for error that he had. You mentioned earlier the fourth downplay to McLaurin, which gave the commanders a lead in the fourth quarter. Let's listen to that. Fourth and two at the five. Ten minutes you go fourth quarter. Daniel's in the gun. Eckler to his left. Three wide receivers to the right, carries to the left.

Here's the step. Daniels to throw for it, backpedaling, into the end zone. What a play. Touchdown! Touchdown, Washington. Five to 17. A clutch play in the lead! Yeah, so that touchdown comes after the first major mistake from the Buccaneers in the fourth quarter.

It was a fumble on a handoff between Baker and. Jalen McMillan and you Kevin and Patrick you guys were trying to figure out like do we know like what that it was a sweep to McMillan the whole way

Baker was supposed to handoff yeah I can't believe he tried to make that handoff happen because it just didn't look right he put it in his hip that's why I thought it was going to be a fake and a pitch to Bucky going the other way but but bowl said after the game as Patrick said that it was supposed to be

a sweet like it just looked off and I don't know why Baker didn't abort that because it wasn't going to work. He ended up tying for the league leading fumbles. Didn't like lose a ton, but he had a ton of fumbles. And they couldn't do much the first three drives of the game. You only got three points out of them while Washington is just holding onto the ball and you're just waiting for this game to kind of wake up.

And they get the ball under two minutes to go and they get a touchdown to go into halftime. They get a touchdown the first time they have the ball, the second half. And you think, okay, it's going. They barely got any possessions in this game, only seven. So their next drive was that fumble, and it's just crazy shook to think that this Buccaneer season, which was led by a top five offense, ends on a failed handoff on one drive, and then the next drive, they have a third and a foot just outside the 10-yard line, and that was some sort of botch snap situation where him and the center are not on the same page. Graham Barton snaps it. The rest of the offensive line and Baker seem totally surprised. They lose a couple yards on the play and decide to kick a field goal.

What a weird and brutal way, I guess I would say, for a season to end. It was the worst possible time for the basic fundamentals to break down. That fumble on the handoff to McMillan, that's a snap count thing. Like, that's all about timing. And the jet sweep, you have to snap the ball, turn around in time to hand it to him, put him in his stomach. And he didn't put it in his stomach because the snap came too late. then the snap comes too early on that play and half of Washington defense is in the backfield

and they fail to convert in a huge spot have to settle for three which then gives Washington the opportunity to go down and kick the field goal. It was so uncharacteristic of this team but also this game was uncharacteristic of the Buccaneers for the same reasons that you guys just mentioned which is the time of possession difference. You know, they went tempo for a lot of that touchdown drive

in the third quarter and they had Washington on skates. They had no way to react, no idea what to do and they went right down the field and scored. And I thought they don't really do that that often. they feel the need to do it now to gain an advantage. It's like they were always grasping for small advantages as if they knew we were only going to have so many opportunities. And then in the fourth quarter, when those opportunities arrive,

they botched them. And then you see their expression on the sideline when they realize their season is officially over and they're just stunned because they realize we just let it slip through our hands. This is so unlike us. I can't believe it's over already when it was right there for the take. Right. And I can almost hear what commanders fans are thinking right now.

If London Fletcher is out there, he's a big NFL daily, guy. And he's like, yeah, but we had to go win the game. It's true. There was a sense of inevitability. And yet, when you look at it, that field goal that they kicked a tie was with 440 left of the game with three timeouts. That takes an awesome professional quarterback and offense to be able to end the game with the ball. And it takes a lot of confidence that the Bucks defense was not going to come through. And it wasn't a great Bucks defense this year. And I think today they were hurt by a couple injuries. Jamel Dean goes out in this game.

Zion McCollin was in and out at various points and their replacements. What was that guy? Gino, Josh Hayes. Yep. Josh Hayes was weirdly in the crosshairs of a couple big games this year when he came

in as an injury replacement. Unfortunately, that was a big factor to it, but that was part of it. That I just felt like the team's offenses had the big advantages tonight, which is why I ask you, Patrick Claibon, my fourth down Maven, should they have gone for fourth and three,

down 20 to 17, under five minutes to go in the red zone after that messed up third in a foot? Absolutely, with the benefit of hindsight. According to next gen stats, yes. Todd Bowles was perfect on fourth down on his decisions. Okay. uh today that one the the fourth and seven um in the with in the first quarter it was a field goal by

0.04% okay that was very close it was a full 2.5% uh to kick that last field goal interesting you're down three obviously right you you your chances of losing the game if you don't pick that up is high the one the one thing it would say is those numbers aren't about the matchup that you're in and i just feel like, if you go to the rule of like what you don't, the other team doesn't want you to do, the Buccaneers offense ultimately had a huge edge on Washington's defense. And I think

vice versa was true. Like, Dan Campbell's going for that. I'm just saying. Other than snapping the ball in the fourth quarter, the Bucks had a huge advantage on all of them. Right? Right. But you got to take your chance. You got to go with the they just had

third and a foot. Right. And it was Todd Bulls is not going to go for that though. That's not who he That's not who he is, though. That's not who Todd Bowles is. It's a great point, you saying that Dan Quinn would have gone for it because Dan Quinn went for fourth down for the touchdown twice in the fourth quarter of this game. The first time, it doesn't work. It's funny how you end up remembering these games because Jane Daniels did play really well, Shucky.

But that sequence right near the goal line before Baker Mayfield fumbled the ball was his worst sequence of the game. He chooses not to throw. He just gets a little hesitant on a wide open touchdown on first down. He throws what should have been an interception potentially on third down. Was that Levante who had a chance? Dion Jones. Oh, Dion Jones.

Dion Jones is playing big moment. He didn't play a snap in the regular season on defense. Literally Dan Quinn's guy for the commanders. That wouldn't have been a revenge game. It just would have been, hey, Dan, remember me? Back in the NFC South. Remember when that podcaster Greg Rosenthal? wrote 500 words about me and who was the other line background of team at half time of Falcons Patriots.

And I've told that story about 17 times. Devondre Campbell. And then they never used that word. It's just like we would have remembered. We would have remembered it much differently through an incompletion on fourth down. But ultimately it didn't happen. There will be Bulls discussion after this one. What do you think? I've been floating the idea that it's possible.

depending on how the end of the season went, like if they didn't make the playoffs, for instance, that they would get rid of Bulls to prevent Liam Cohen from leaving. If you were going to create a scenario where after making the playoffs, that could possibly happen, this is pretty close to it, like a frustrating close loss where people aren't happy with the game management. Even though I don't think the game management and the timeout usage was that close

to like his worst game in that. that realm. Like, it's not a strength of his. But tonight, I think you're picking nits a little too much. Yeah, and it's kind of hard because playoffs, sometimes you can just be a weird thing. Like Cliff Kingsbury had a couple of terrible play calling sequences in the red zone when they got down there in the second half. And yet they come away victorious. So we all forget that. We remember this because Todd Bull's defense didn't stand up and get a stop late in the game. But if we think about the season in total, think about what these Buccaneers have been through. They lost their two top receivers for a significant portion of the season. And yet they

still managed to finish strong, win the NFC South, make the playoffs, have a home game, and be in a position to win. Ultimately, they fell short. Everybody wants to kill Todd Bulls for his clock management issues before the end of the first half. It ends up working out perfectly for them because of the playmaking of the Buccaneers. And so, like, he's been in the crosshairs for a while. My question is, like, where do you want to go as a franchise? Because you've been this team that since Tom Brady was on your team and you had that title window that was there in closing and you went and got one and you felt like you maybe could have tried to get another one he never did.

You've kind of just been trying to find a way to keep it afloat, right? And stay competitive. You lucked out when you got Baker Mayfield and he thrived with Dave Canales and now with Liam Cohen. If it comes down to whether you keep Liam Cohen versus Todd Bowles, you keep Liam Cohen. And you can point to all these issues in the past with Todd Bowles. But I just don't know if you get that much better without Todd Bowles. Who else is out there that's going to elevate you to the point that you think you're

supposed to be when in reality, maybe it's a combination of coaching and personnel. And they still won the division. They still were really close to winning a playoff game. It's kind of a high standard. Yeah, considering we just outlined the difference in this game, right? The ball goes past Yaya Diabi's thumb by a fraction of an inch. The kick, two inches one way, it's bouncing back. Maybe they're still playing the game while we're having this discussion.

Who knows, Collaja Canty grabs a flag, Baker's Fumble. If you're hiring and firing decisions come down to those moments, then you don't have a process at all. Everything is just vibes. And I don't think that's a good way to operate a football franchise. And I'm sure people are frustrated by the outcomes. Okay. Like I just, I don't see a reason to, but it's fire everybody. You know, Sean McDermott almost got fired according to folks earlier this year.

Like, who cares? Best case scenario is that you return the coaching staff next year. But Patrick, if you're in a situation where you have Intel, the Jaguars are going to make Liam Cohen, your their head coach. I think it's a serious consideration because I think they had a special season offensively and he was an excellent play caller and that combination of play caller and quarterback

to me is the most valuable thing that you can have and so it's a discussion, I believe. But they already did that with Dirk Cutter didn't work out for him, did it? Yeah, and how often are good play callers, good head coaches? It's like Nourth Turner. You want to have Nourkewarm. of Turner as your head coach?

I wouldn't. It was a, you know, maybe folks were saying last year. It's like, ah, we got to keep Canales in there. Let's get rid of Todd Bowles. It doesn't necessarily make sense to me. There's a lot of talented people who can orchestrate an offense if they

have the pieces. Jail and McMillan's going to be better next year. Mike Evans is still producing. Baker's maybe not going to lead the league in turnovers next year. That's a slight on the offense, at least fumbles. Offensive line is awesome. KDott and is sneaky good. Bucky Irving ran really well.

They need to fix the deep tonight. Although when they didn't pick up that third and a foot, was that after the run that Bucky Irving stopped his feet? We're watching in the in the film room with MJD and he was absolutely right. I love watching the games with MJD because he has such a good feel of what the running backs do in a giving situation. And, yeah, on that first down, it's that, it's that counterplay that Chris Collinsworth was talking about where the blockers, and it's just beautiful. And Bucky's been, Bucky Irving's been amazing running all night, and he gets to the edge.

And to your point about small margins, and Lattimore comes up to kind of force him to the inside. And Irving does what to someone like MJD is a cardinal sin of a running back. I mean, you are running forward with all the momentum in the world. This is a situation where momentum does exist. And there's two defenders coming up and he just he just chops his feet all of a sudden and he just completely stops. And it was that set up the third in a foot. And I'm not getting on Buck Irving or saying that that he is at fault for that. But it is those like little small margins in a playoff game where when they're watching the tape tomorrow, they're all going to think the same thing that that maybe 19 times out of 10,

if you put Bucky Irving there in that situation with that much room and a full head of steam, he picks up at yard. And then it's a totally different game and we're having different conversations. It's just crazy. These playoff games, that's why you love them though, because everything is so magnified. The play before the center was the only person on his own individual snap count.

There was the Baker Mayfield like fake run to Bucky Irving. Right. That was the actual play before. So, Bucky Irving was first down and then Baker was second down. And so, yeah, if you're going to fire Todd Bowles for that,

go for it. I think that would be a bad move. Our friend Ali Connolly, who I believe is going to join me on a show this week. We're going to talk a little bit about the hirings and the firings around the league.

He really thought, it sounded like they had a sneak called that Baker bailed out of because of what he saw. He changed, you know, the signal on that and he changed this cadence up a little

and everyone was on the same page of what Baker and this is just watching the tape you're not for sure but he believes everyone was on the same page of how he changed it up except for Barton clearly and that's how it ends but man

this commander's ride just keeps going they are the story of the season absolutely fun and they will be heading to Detroit next weekend. That is one matchup in the NFC. Let's go to Philadelphia

to determine what the other one was going to be. Tack it down in a yard. Hertz takes the football. He is going to throw. He does in the flat, the nice catch by Goddard, who breaks the tackle across the five.

Touchdown, Goddard. Beasts. He beasted him. He catches a simple flare-batting out into the flat, Mel. And the quarterback is there, and he just beast mows him, pushes him in the face, not once, twice, and into the end zone. That's Dallas Goddard.

That is Dallas Goddard, and then that is Merrill Reese, Mike Quick, on WIP. When that play was happening and he stiff-armed him for about 20 straight yards and got that third stiff arm in, I leapt up because I was like, we finally got a highlight in a game that just like not much was happening. and I felt like I knew who was going to win and probably by a couple scores and that is what happened. It wasn't happening. And Dallas Goddard showed up for us when we needed it.

22 to 10, Eagles win a game in a way that I feel like they've won a lot of games where at the end of it, people say, ah, that wasn't really like a great performance by the Eagles. That was the B-minus Eagles and they still won easy. But is it really the B-minus Eagles? When that's what they do, they don't make mistakes on offense, and they're just an awesome defense that just squeezes the life out of you.

It happened to Jordan Love today. And ultimately, this defense is the biggest reason why they are going to be tough to be in the NFC. They don't give up anything easy. There was nothing easy for Jordan Love all day. Those quick outs, the quick slants, nothing came easy. There's always guys in his face. I haven't seen, and we can get into the injuries on the offensive line, but like Zach Tom was getting worked over.

Yeah. We've never seen him get worked over in a very long time. but the Eagles defense just won this game. And this is how they played. This is how they played all year. They play to their opponent and they're a defensive team. I don't know why we expect them to be some offensive juggernaut when they haven't shown that all year.

They're big runs by Saquan Barclay and their defense. Yeah, and the potential for a big run by Saquan Barclay at the very end of the game, he decides to just slide down. I think after only, what, 17 yards or so. Hell, let's listen to that call. I'm curious how they handled what should have been. a game-ending celebratory touchdown by Saquan. In the pistol.

Again, it goes to Barclay. And again, he breaks. He's at the 40 and he falls down. He could have taken that home. He was out in front of the world. He could have taken that to the distance. But he said, I will do the gentlemanly thing. I will fall down and run out the clock.

You know, he picks up 17 yards, but he's beyond the entire defense already. And all he has to do is just keep running because you can't. against this guy, but he said, I'll slide that and save some for next week. Oh, that was great, especially on the TV copy where they just show a beaming Howie Roseman on the sideline. And yes, as Sequin said on the after the game, his teammates said, you could have gone further, though. You could have just ran for a while and then slot, like, slid down. But now he's saving his mileage. And he did look fresh in this game.

His very first carry was badass. But the Packers defense was up for it. It was hard-earned yards all day for Sequin, and that's why it took so long for the game to really be over. Yeah, they crowded the line of scrimmage. I thought coverage was good in total because we saw that Dallas-Gowdirt touchdown, which got things going. Jalen Hurts had 28 yards passing before that drive.

Then he hits Devante Smith for 28 yards. It hits Devante again for nine yards, and then Dallas-Gaudert stiffs Valentine all the way into the end zone for that score where they started to get some production. there from the passing game. But you worried about the Eagles there for a while because he went, I believe a couple of possessions without a completion and they really couldn't do anything on offense.

The defense carried this team for significant portions of the first. Almost two full quarters without a completion. Yeah. At one point, he had had his last completion like with five minutes left in the first quarter. And we were mid to late third quarter. I think it was seven straight incompletion.

and maybe even jumped up after that when I wrote it. 10 dropbacks, I think seven incompletions and he got sacked twice and he scrambled for a negative yard. And yet they were never really in trouble in this game because of the defense and because Jordan Love threw three interceptions. And look, Chuck, we're going to have some annoying discourses about quarterbacks.

I guess that's just what happens in the offseason. And Justin Herbert is on the AFC side. And I think Jordan Love is going to be. on the NFC side. And it was an uneven game and an uneven season for love. And this kind of typified it. And you give them some asterisk,

though, because Romeo Dobbs goes out with a concussion at one point. Jaden Reed then goes out in the second half. There was a lot going on in this game, injury-wise for Green Bay. And they just were not ready to stand up to it. Yeah, concussion suffered on a ball to the end zone too.

Like considering situation, you know, just another loss in a terrible spot. He also didn't have Christian Watson in this game to begin with because of his knee injury. So, yeah, they're not operating with a full cover, but you want to talk about typifying his season. I mean, this is a guy who suffered an injury to his knee in week one

and missed a couple of games. It just felt like he never was afforded really an opportunity to get on track. He had some great moments this season, that Saints game, that blowout win in primetime was one of them. But when we went into this season coming off of that, you know, incredible back half that he had last year at going into the playoffs and what they did in the playoffs, you expected more. And maybe we shouldn't have expected as much once we saw him get hurt in week one.

And it ends in a clunk. Now, he's not the only Packers' quarterback that ends up being a legend in Green Bay that's had a clunker of a playoff game. Farham did it. Rogers did it. Like, nobody's perfect. It's just that for this team, it was all too fitting for how they've looked in the last couple of weeks. And against a defense like this, you can't afford to make these mistakes. Even if the score is still close because Philly's offense can't get it going, you just can't afford to make these mistakes.

So that's what they're going to come away with, the sour taste in their mouth and some questions about him. But I think if any franchise is going to stay the course, it's the Packers with Jordan Love. It's just one of these experiences that he's going to. to learn from. Yeah, I think the panic button should not be being pressed in Green Bay. It's one advantage of us where we're just not like, you're laughing, and I

even purposefully sent a tweet out about it afterwards. It's like, this team is really young. They're in a great situation. They won two more games than they did a year ago. Their point differential actually went up by 80, 90 points a year ago, but I just knew and then I started seeing it, like, Packers

fans who want Lafleur fired. It's ridiculous. And like, I mean, that That's ridiculous, but like, but just like making this out to be some huge disappointment and Love is a total bust. It's like Love had an eight-week stretch here where he was averaging nine adjusted yards per attempt. Multiple things can be true though, and he wasn't fighting with a full deck. He also did not play well today. The first interception was just an overthrow.

One throw really sticks out to me a fourth down to Malik Heath where he just missed the throw. And that is something that happens with Jordan Love. He just kind of misses throws in a way you don't totally want. And you also see the other side of that where there was the throw down the sideline to Malik Heath with pressure in his face he goes up and gets that ball away from I believe it was Reed Blankenship

the great back shoulder throw they had spots where you've seen that those outs to Romeo Dobbs on the goal line where when that's Malik Heath right it was it was a tough completion for the Packers and Elton Jenkins going down

that was a big part of this game Kishon Nixon absolutely recovered that fumble. I have no idea how that was not a clear recovery but he's laying on the ground being touched by a defender holding a football with two hands. I was confused of how they never gave that a better

explanation. The panic button situation for Green Bay is preposterous. A very good Eagles team on the road. What are we doing? Yeah, you're talking about the fumble on the very opening kickoff. The Eagles recover it. Massive hit. Good job. by Oren Berks, who's going to have a big role down the stretch here for the Eagles. Unfortunately, Nikobe Dean left with what looked like a serious knee injury.

He was carted off, and Oren Berks ended up mostly stepping in for him. But yeah, three plays later, after a Sequin run, a couple of runs, a nice one, Jalen Hertz drops back to pass. And, you know, he still might be in that pocket. I don't think we have that highlight, but it was just amazing to me. how long he was just sitting back there. It was a reminder like, man, this offensive line. Not that they were perfect tonight,

but they should have a better passing game considering he gets such great pass protection and the receivers that they have. It's, he looks like he's overthinking. And like he started out hot. He started out six for six. And then he can't hit the broadside of barn. And I have an issue with,

whether it's Kellan Moore, whether it's Nick Siriani, they don't give him enough easy throws. Or maybe he just doesn't take them. because when they started getting the quick to Devante Smith and that got her, where was that for a quarter and a half? They got it going and then they scored a touchdown in four plays.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, quick outs, quick slants. They just don't, I don't feel like they gave him enough easy reads or he's not taking them right off the bat. Yeah, when he holds it usually good things don't happen. He's such an interesting player because he's so good at what he does well. Even as a runner, it's very similar. It's like he is almost as good as any. running back in the league. And I'm even throwing Lamar in this at just downhill runs. Like in terms

of downhill power as a quarterback and he just has to kind of move to the side or, you know, run over a guy. And when he's decisive, he's as good as anyone. And yet when he starts going horizontal, the play's over. Yeah. Like it's, it never works out. Well, he's such a fascinating player. Are you concerned at all, I guess, shook that on a day where they end up going plus four in the turnover margin. And yes, that one touchdown that they had, which stood for a while was off, you know, a very short drive. Are you concerned that, you know, they only get 22 points up? They didn't get 300 yards. They only hit two third downs in this game, 16 first downs overall.

Like it was not a great offensive performance overall. No, it wasn't. It's funny because when they get that turnover and then they score in like three plays, I'm like, all right, here they go. They're off to the races. Here we go. I know they had a short field, but they made it look relatively easy. I think he held the ball for 6.75 seconds before that touchdown passed to Jahan Dotson. And then they just disappeared, like we just described.

I would be more concerned against a lesser team, but Green Bay's defense has been sneaky effective and they found their way through. I mean, I think it's perfect that they scored their longest touchdown pass of a low-scoring game was on a swing pass to a tight end who then just runs over a guy for a touchdown. Like that was just that fit the day for them. They're going to run into more challenges, but I think this often still starts the Sequin. And if that is rolling early, then it opens everything else up. I also think you saw a little bit of the rust. Jalen hadn't played in a few weeks. Sequin didn't play in week 18. I think that had

something to do with it as well. So maybe they have some things to correct on the tape before they go into next week. I'm not panicking. Again, don't leave the case on the panic button here. The Eagles won. They're moving on. It's fine. It's how they win. It's kind of how they win. I mean, but they were so quiet on offense. A.J. Brown only ends up with one catch for 10 yards and mostly makes news for, you know, just reading a book on the side. I mean, shout out to Book Sky. You know, I'm on Blue Sky. I'm checking out the book content there.

I sent out some Bookstagram content of my top 10 favorite reads. So I just love, you know, A.J. Brown on the sideline reading this book. So A.J. Brown, well, we're figuring that out. He, he's a little frustrated. Obviously, he hasn't seen too many balls. Today he's going to read a little passage here. I haven't seen too many people read books, but I've seen a quarterback eat a hot dog.

Mark Sanchez. Certainly not in the playoffs. That's cool comic collected. I was like worried for Tom's kids. You know, he's like, I haven't seen too many people read a book, but it was on brand. AJ Brad did tweet about it after the game. And he gave a shout out to the book Inter Excellence by Jim Murphy.

He said the game's 90% mental, 10% physical. It brings it to every game. I read some excerpts. Okay. And I will say there's some in that audio that we heard, Marshall Mathers lyrics for Lose Yourself are a little more impactful than the words that I read. Oh, wow.

Which is why I will be dropping. For you. I will be dropping my book, Subterranean Winning coming out. If any NFL players would like to hear my thoughts on success in the highest levels of competition. Wow. I mean, one thing I noticed when he's flipping and open, and you can see it on the tweet, too. That was dog-eared.

It's underlined. It's highlighted. Highlighted and underlined the same passages. Interesting move. I mean, I love it. I want to normalize just breaking out a book in any situation. The funniest thing about it was I couldn't believe people were like, this is great.

It's different behavior. But the idea that people were saying this was somehow diva-ish behavior. Or that it was like distracting. I was like, this man is. trying to center himself so that he can do his best for the team. So it works for AJ. I mean, if that's what it's helping to create this season.

He said he brings it every week, though. I have a hard time believing nobody had ever seen it before, though. Because even the beatwriters were like, we've never seen this. How was it never caught before? They asked Hertz about it in the post game. He said, yeah, I've seen him open it.

I haven't seen him reading it. Oh, it's like LeBron. He's always reading the first page of a book in the locker room. Perhaps. And I'm team book. I just, you know, Greg's got some great lists of books. We can get some folks and books.

The self-help genre is a little overdone. Yeah. A little bit. I hate to criticize something I haven't really tried. I'll do it for you, Greg. Okay. Yeah. I don't think it would help me to each their own.

Personally, we know one thing. AJ Brown's palms were not sweaty. His knees were not weak and his arms were not heavy. Yeah. There you go. Look. Philadelphia. Love this team.

And I do want to just before we go, sort of remember of all the football we watched this weekend. And there's been some ugly football. It kind of reminds me a week one and two when everyone's like,

oh, is offense gone again? Is defense taking over? And then that went away. Offense was great for most of the season. Defense is back. And I really did think watching these games,

specifically the Texans, and then specifically the Eagles today like Nolan Smith that sack on Tom for instance the way Dean and Bond were bouncing off of each other Zach Bond's interception just everything Zach Bond does

if you just watch him all game it's really fun the interception by Slay was beautiful that's a great play that's what I've seen all year yeah right and Quinion Mitchell I think he was thrown at six times he gave up 10 yards

he had that long PI that was, to me. That was the embellishment in my world. Which was one of Jordan Love's worst throws. It landed about 20 yards out of bounds. Like, that was uncatchable to me. And Jalen Carter was an absolute beast. They were physical as hell, Shucky.

Like, this is one of the better defenses that we've seen. I always say it's so hard for a defense to be really difference making in the NFL. They are the best defense in the NFL. I feel like, that's safe to say, right? Yeah, and it actually is what's giving me great confidence in their chances to make the Super Bowl in these playoffs. Like, I know we're talking lions. I know we're talking Vikings.

I'm talking Eagles because of that defense, playing simple. They can have a game like this against anybody that they play. And I think they're going to be a challenge for whoever they run into as long as they're still, you know, eligible to play and haven't been eliminated. Right. And we don't know who they're going to play. It's going to be against the Monday night football winner. And they will be playing on Sunday. So it'll be a shorter week for whoever wins on Monday night, but, you know, not the short.

Jordan as week possible if they had to try to turn it around on Saturday. But they get another home game. Shout out to Josh Jacobs for a great performance all season long. That near touchdown he had was awesome. And then he cashes it in right after that. He just had a great season. But a frustrating end for the Packers. I have not seen this video.

So I am hoping it delivers. It is Matt LaFleur knocking over a Gatorade bottle on the podium after the game. Like I said, they played mostly zone coverage the entire game. So, you know, it's just, yeah, right now. Nice. That's about par for the night right there. So he didn't knock it over. It just fell over on its own.

It appears to. So I didn't have like a time code for that happening. So I watched the whole conference. And I'm watching that bottle the whole time just shake, shake, shake. I'm waiting for it to happen and that's the back end of like a 45 second answer where he's like in deep like what went wrong and it's just he and

right after you can hear the PR person like two more let's get out of here. Was it made of tungsten? Yeah I was what was that? I thought it was a coffee mug. I watched part of that press conference too Eric and I couldn't find like an easy clip

that would be perfect because it was just him speaking and this is what I wanted to coaches. Just him speaking off the dome for like five minutes opening statement uninterrupted and just feeling it. Just feeling the loss. So upset, frustrated, everything possible, the end of a tough season, but a good season. Overall, for the Packers, ends around though before last season. Let's take a quick break.

We have one AFC game to talk about on Sunday. We hit the two on Saturday. Yeah, if you're wondering, how come you guys aren't talking those Saturday? games. We already did a podcast on that. Go check out the podcast with me and Bill Barnwell that we taped Saturday night after the break. We will head to Buffalo. Hey, this is Matt Jones. I'm Drew Franklin. And this is NFL cover zero. We're just here to try to give you an NFL perspective a little bit different. Did you see the Colts pretzel? That was my other big takeaway from that game. What was that? Oh my. My.

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Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. Sears to the right, one to the left, and now Ty Johnson retreats to the backfield. Here's the snap. He's going to go back to pass. Alan rolling out to his right, looking for somebody open. Nobody is. Has to throw it to the end zone for Ty Johnson, who makes a sliding catch in the end zone for a touchdown. Well, who would have expected that? Talk about stretching the playout to the last possible second. A 24-yard touchdown strike from Allen to Ty Johnson.

And with that touchdown pass, Josh Allen passes Hall of Famer Jim Kelly for the most touchdowns in team history in the playoffs. Wow. Good nugget there by Chris Brown on WGR. Billswood Roll after that. Another touchdown pass to go break that record some more. Curtis Samuel added a 55-yard touchdown early in the 4th,

quarter. It was off to the races. Bills win 31 to 7 in a game that the Broncos let 7 to nothing, that they only trailed at halftime 10 to 7. I thought this thing might go down to the wire. And it didn't. Why didn't it, Patrick? We just saw it. That was the highest leverage play of the game. It's fourth and one at that point. And we talked about Jalen Hertz having 6.75 seconds. Same number for Josh Allen on that play, except the difference is the ball travels 43 yards in the air. Josh Allen off his back foot, fractions of an inch, fractions of a second from

Ty Johnson's leg being out of bounds where it felt like the game plan for Vance Joseph was to make Buffalo drive, make them earn it, not give up the big plays, and get something from the offense. And they got that early, but it was just too much to overcome. They didn't hit their high leverage plays. They had, well, let's miss a field goal right at the end of the first half. And it's just one of those things where

it was discussed on the call of the game you're an underdog on the road and you're going to have to have everything go right and eventually those things just didn't go right especially the passing game for the Broncos which was kind of janky and segmented after that second half started. Right.

The bills are such a different team this year. I know they've won in the wild card round sometimes by a lot before and yet I think this game really showed how much more mature they are as a team just like they can beat you any sort of way.

And I was really impressed, Kevin, how early they were so patient with the running game. They, fans Joseph was saying, like, beat us this way. The bills are like, okay, we'll put our six offensive linemen out there. The run to pass ratio in the end was 44 runs, 28 passes. Which is like, okay, it was a laugher. It must have got out of control late. No, there was 22 runs, 12 passes early. And they kept sticking with it.

And more importantly, they can do it really well against a good defense. Well, it made the Broncos adjust their defense because they kept pounding it. And Alan was like, are you going to play two shell? I'm just going to keep handing up. They had 128 guards rushing at halftime. Josh Allen had 69 yards passing. In the second half, he flipped it because then the Broncos were like, great, we got to bring some blitzes.

And then Josh burned him with four deep shots, two of them for touchdowns. And he had, I ended up with 272, totally passing yards. So you do the math, 200 yards in the second half. Because they just got those openings because they were patient early. And if he's such a more mature quarterback this year than in any other year, it's not just the not taking sacks and just not just the avoiding bad turnovers. It's him understanding like, okay, you're going to do this to me. I'm fine with that.

I'm not going to force it. I'm going to just hand the ball off to James Cook and we're going to run for 120 yards. That's exactly what I mean. Even the sack that he did take in the red zone before they kicked the field goal, the seven to three. That was one play as he was stepping up. I had visions of like bad Josh Allen plays in my mind for a second. Like, uh-oh, how is this going to go?

They've got him totally surrounded. And you could see for a second. And then he just took the sack. And I don't want to be the guy who's like rewarding the guy for, you know, out of boy, you took a sack. Like you avoided the negative play. But for Josh Allen, I think this performance, Nick, did show a lot. and you got to love a team that goes out there

and they put six offensive linemen on the field on almost a quarter of their snaps. They led the league in doing this during the season and they did it way more in this game than they usually do. And yeah, Allen ends up with 46. But Ty Johnson goes nine for 44. They put him in for a drive and they're electric

and Cook gets 120 and one. It's just a crazy combination to have all of those guys and Josh Allen running the wall. Yeah, it's indicative of this entire Bill's season, I think, because they went into the offseason. They lost DeFon Diggs via trade, and they had to kind of reformulate who they were. And all the questions came,

who are they going to throw it to? Well, they didn't really need to figure out who they were to throw it to. They were just going to change who they were and not be so aggressive. Instead, take what defenses give them. Be aggressive when those opportunities arose, but don't force it, just like you said.

That's how you end up winning the time of possession battle, 41 minutes and 43 seconds to 1817. Sure, you're going to make us work. for it. Guess what? You're not going to see the football. The Broncos end of this game with eight possessions, four in each half. And if you're not capitalizing on all of those, the bills are just going to squeeze you to death. They're going to squeeze you into submission like a boa constrictor. And it's going to look like a laugher when it really kind of wasn't that case until probably after that touchdown pass to Ty Johnson, we just talk about it. I mean, that's a play

that takes the life out of an opponent when you're playing well enough to keep it close and then they hit a fourth down like that. And that displays the maturity that you just spoke of. This is a Bill's team that understands the goal ahead and the task at hand, which is win this game and get to the next. You don't have to be flashy to do it, just win the game and move on, and then they end up being flashy as a result. They had eight different players

have at least two targets in this game. One player had six, that's Cleo Shakir, caught all of them. Everyone else had either two or three. And you were like, who are you going to throw it to? The answer is mostly not Amari Cooper, who is fifth

on the team in snaps. at wide receiver, Patrick. Isn't that crazy? And one of those two catches was like a screen ball where it's like, this is not what you get Amari Cooper for. He ran 11 routes. And the snaps are distributed pretty evenly

where it's not like a huge gap between one and five. But he is fifth. And it's lower than the two tight ends too. So technically it's like seventh among possible pets catchers. And it's fine. And it kind of was a sneaky,

one-sided game. I guess it's not that sneaky the way the second half played out, but I couldn't believe this stat that I saw from Jay Skersky of, I believe, the Buffalo News. The yardage differential in this game, 471 to 224,

that's a 247 yard differential. That was the biggest in any playoff game since Cam Newton started a game against the Arizona Cardinals, right? And I want you guys to guess who was the starting quarterback for the Cardinals

in this game. I mean, I would give you guys so much money. This wasn't the NFC championship game. This is, I believe, the wild card or divisional round. Is that one where they had they gone like through three quarterbacks? That's absolutely right

and why it's a tough answer for you. John Skelton. That's not right. He was, I think, their backup that year. It was Ryan Lindley. And it was, yes, the worst. Oh, it was the worst. My guy.

Did they throw for like 32 yards? Yeah, it was the worst performance I've ever seen by any playoff team. It was, I don't know what that yardage one was, but it was like off. It was absolutely. I had Lindley looking across at Thomas Davis and Luke King. It was troubling.

Prom Josh Norman. It was a game that was over within about like six minutes, which you just don't see too often. This one gave us a lot more entertainment. In part because the Broncos' offense had a great first drive. Bo Nix rips a third and long on his very first, you know, third down of the game, first throw of the game. and then has a beautiful touchdown pass.

And the rest of the game, I felt like there was a couple drops in there. I don't think Bo Nix played that bad. There were a couple times where he didn't see the field well and maybe panicked a bit. But I felt like it was kind of a full team just were not good enough versus like a bad Bo Nix game. Yeah, there was the Cortland Sutton drop. Yes. I think doomed to drive. The drive at the end of the first half where there was a 12-yard Bo Nix scrambled and he hit

Cortland Sutton, I believe, for 21 yards before Lutz missed the field goal, just in spots. But then when the opposition is the juggernaut that's handed the ball off a lot, running the ball the way they did, they just had to execute better. And it just felt like there was something missing. A run game all season, really. Yeah, they can't run the ball. I felt like the bills and McDermott knew exactly who they were going at. And they were going to make Bonix try to get to his second and third read and knew he

couldn't do it under pressure. He did not play well. This was like I think the most he's been pressured in a game all season and he just didn't play well. I don't think he played poorly because like you said, there was those drops, but he couldn't execute at a level that I think in two or three years he will be able to. Yeah, there were, it was all, it was a lot of just misses. Now, we had a couple just missed an interception. So it could have gotten the other way too, but just a pass off here or there. They didn't get the running game going all year. Sean Payton just talked about, look, we couldn't, we couldn't do anything on third down. And we couldn't win their first downs at all. They were living in like second and four all year. And you wonder if the Broncos

who have a really good defense, but they're so light that you might want to add like a little bit of size. Greg Russo, Von Miller, Matt Milano played almost every snap. So some good signs I think for the, the Bill's defense who, oh boy, like let's get going. Shucky, we got we got it. This is one of the better divisional round games I can remember. I guess it's too early. We shouldn't already be previewing next week. Actually, let's hear from Sean McDermott before we hear from Nick Shook talking about next week. Yeah, I mean, this is what everyone's been waiting for, right?

So it'll be a nice week and everyone will be looking forward to it. And, you know, they're a great football team, right? I mean, they handled us pretty good, the first go around. And, you know, they're certainly playing. and well, well coached. John's won a Super Bowl and comes from great pedigree, so it'll be a big challenge for us.

We don't need to preview the game next week, but I don't know, Shuck. Like, how do you see this? Like, the discourse is going to be annoying. But how do you think like the... I jinks. It's going to be very annoying. But how do you think, like, they set themselves up, kind of where they are now,

maybe versus where they were early in the season? The Bill's best chance of victory is follow the same approach that they had today. The question is, can you run the ball as effectively against a defense that has more weight to it that has probably coming, you know, they're coming together really well in Baltimore down the back half of this season. Zach Orr has really figured out how to use this defense to his advantage. And at what point when you have to shift to ask Josh Allen to make plays, you know,

at what point in the game does that arrive? Is it early? Is it often? Because if it's early and often, then you're going to be in a hell of a battle if you can't lean on the run game early. But it's going to be quite a matchup. And we already know what Baltimore's offense, which looks like one of the best students in the league can do. Obviously, we'll spend all week talking about it, but it's going to be a great game.

Yeah, I like for them that Milano was able to play more snaps, stay in on third down. I like that Vaughn had two of the team's three quick pressures, but there are five pressures overall, and yeah, had a couple quick ones. So he's coming around at the long time. I also think their short yardage package has now passed the Eagles as the best short yardage, don't you think? Because they do the Josh Allen push. And that's never stopped ever.

But they also mix in the, like on the third and one where they knew they had the fourth one to go to where he kind of boots out. And it's defended perfectly. And he makes you miss on the edge in a way maybe Jalen Hertz probably won't. They can do anything in those short yardages. Well, yeah, snapping the ball to Josh, I think is always going to help. I do know a Rams team over across the street that had success against the Josh Allen quarterback sneak. Fair? especially late

I'm not going to put them on the level of the Eagles in that situation because I think it's fundamentally different the way they approach it I mean the Eagles were able to run a trick play off of it just because of the certainty

right today that they were going to get it on fourth down I don't know that the bills necessarily have that luxury and in with the game and the stakes and the abilities of the team I don't how many fourth downs

are we going to see well that's fair how are you? you feeling, Patrick. I was hoping, because that's the Sunday afternoon game. It's the last one. It's Tony Romo. It's Jim Nance.

It's the entree of this weekend. And so generally, we would be here in the office. Like, are you going to watch it in the theater with us, with all those common folk? Primarily, I will be watching the football game by myself. Okay. I will be, I will be loud. There will be a lot of swear words one way or the other. Probably won't be looking at.

Twitter, I'll be pacing back and forth and yelling obscenities at the screen. So I'll keep it. I kind of feel for you because it, having been there with the Patriots, you don't want the game, you want the game to be on Saturday if you're doing like a Sunday night show. You want like the 24 hours to kind of like calm down your emotions, maybe good or bad from it, you know, just you don't want to be raw coming into the studio after loss. But the listeners hopefully will like it if that happened. Yeah, I mean, everybody anybody that puts up with me anyway you know i i i appreciate it regardless but it's um yeah during is is tough it's tough to be around i mean having to listen to herbie is is enough oh yeah last night was was not great let's listen to hmm let's listen to sean mcdermott again

i want to hear him talk about that tie johnson touchdown which really was the biggest play of the game and an incredible play by johnson what i saw um well probably like you on the on ty's touchdown And I was going, oh, come on, come on. Oh, yeah, yeah, good, good. Yeah. No, no, no, no, yes. Yeah, his version of that, exactly. Great job by the Bills.

And a great season for the Broncos. Considering what people thought about that team coming into the season, I know our friend Cynthia Freeland had that as her favorite over under the year, as an over five and a half, but... Good for her. You know, but that was five and a half. I mean, they shed some veteran as on defense and the defense was still good. That's a credit to Vance Joseph for sure.

I think they have a really solid foundation to build from because they have a great play caller, an offensive line that is clearly coached well and they can tweak if they need to and plenty of talent on defense, maybe the defensive player of the year. They're going to need to get better because the schedule is going to get harder. They really didn't beat any good teams this year. They kind of made it through the whole season without basically beating a good team that was trying to win. So they need to get better, but they can get better.

That division suddenly looks very good. Okay, that's it for the games. We have the schedule. I haven't gone through them all in a row yet. So we will be starting. Yes, Houston Texans. Love that Saturday afternoon window. Now, they're almost undefeated, 6 and 2 in West of this.

But that's only wildcard weekend. It doesn't, it doesn't, the magic doesn't work on Saturday afternoon. And that's when they'll be in Arrowhead. That is the ESPN choice. Aikman game. That night is the Fox game. Tom Brady back in our lives, Lions and Commanders. Expect a lot of points there. Sunday morning or rather afternoon. Now they got the noon Pacific 3 p.m. start. You have the winner of Rams Vikings who will be heading to Philadelphia, Shirley as an underdog. And then yes, Ravens and Bills as the

cap are starting at 6.30 Eastern. and it's got to be fun. My favorite week of the year. And yet I can't feel like we can look forward that much, Nick, because we have a Monday night recap to do tomorrow night. I'm looking forward to that as well. Before we get out, it feels a little off topic. But the New England Patriots hired a head coach.

How about that? As the person, Nick, that resembles Mike Rable most physically on the show, I'll let you go first. Talk me out of this being like a vague. annoying hire because it just feels like more of the same going back to the same well no fresh ideas that sort of thing i feel like i'm i'm on an island here among patriots fans who are generally loving this i'm also the person who grew up like five minutes from where mike frable went to high school but that's there you go there it is uh he it's like what you were

going for with gerard mayo except he has proven head coaching experience has earned an afc's top seed before with the Tennessee Titans. He's won the division. He's at least got a track record of doing it and being able to handle it, which unfortunately in Gerard Mayo's first season, we kind of learned that he just was inexperienced at being a head coach and having to deal with the media or whatever else might be, the ups and downs of coaching a bad team. And Vrable, I don't think, is going to come in and transform this team because this is a personnel thing. But I think it brings them the stability and familiarity that they're seeking. Now, is the whole Patriot Way thing going to reemerge here? No, I don't think it's going to. But at least he understands the

franchise and knows how to win. They just need to improve the roster to really see that through. I mean, his whole Tennessee tenure got blown up when AJ Brown got traded and his whole issue with John Robinson back then. So I don't hold that against him. But it felt like the most obvious hire we were going to see in this cycle. So at least it's out of the way. Your thoughts on the Patriot Way, Patrick Laybon. Oh, the Patriot Way is the reason that Mike Vrable is the head coach. The Patriot Way had nothing to do with anything. It's a myth. The Patriots had good players.

It is a myth. Bill Belichick, to Patrick's credit, always says there is no such thing. Like, Mike Vrable stepped up to the microphone. He didn't do a Belichick impersonation. He wasn't weird. There weren't like scoldings over what the media was wearing. Like one former coach did, there wasn't any of the weird Josh McDaniels tenure. Mike Vrable was Mike Vrable.

And so I think this isn't a step backwards. it's actually a step forward to what the Patriots probably could have been, you know, four years ago. And if dealing with the media was a weakness for Mayo, if anything, I feel like Rabel's too cozy with the media. Maybe that's part of the thing that annoys me. Oh, unless you're certain writers in Tennessee.

Yeah, I mean, can you be too cozy with the media there? Maybe it's like it's, that's fair. And they'll support him if that's the case. Maybe it's, we've seen how it can go other ones. It's more of the media that. that annoys me when they play favorites.

Like, there's just always those coaches that play the media game behind the scenes, and it's just so transparent. Jeff Fisher was the king at it. Cliff Kingsbury is a strong guy at it, certainly. And Braybill is that guy, but it doesn't mean he's a bad guy. Certainly doesn't mean he's a bad coach.

I think they were very good on the details. The thing that I worry about is you always want, I would like to have a coach with a clear schematic advantage that he brings to the table, something defining. Now, we're seeing a lot of coaches that are really succeeding that aren't in the play-collar model, like John Harbaugh and Dan Campbell. And so that's a fair point.

Even Mike Tomlin in a way, maybe his best use is running the entire organization, although I think Mike Tomlin kind of combines both, which is what you are. Mike Vrable, I don't really know, like, his defenses were up and down. It stunk when I was a coordinator in Houston. Some of his offenses were great and efficient with Tannahill. But he also hired Tim Kelly and Todd Downing as his last two offensive coordinators. So that I don't know what you're getting, but in terms of running an entire organization, kind of being a little more detail-oriented in terms of game management

and stuff like that, the players and the coaches, I feel like he'll raise the floor quite a bit for them. I don't think there's any question that he's going to bring him more. Just the mentality that he brought. I just thought the Drodmeo from the start just dropped the ball with some of the comments he's making in the preseason, and then it just kept going downhill from there. And I think that's where they're trying to look.

I thought it was interesting that they fired Mayo three days after Vrable interviewed with the Jets. Yeah. Oh, this was. Just a little jab there, right? Oh, yeah. You can't let them go there. This was all choreographed, which is frustrating. I think if you want the Rooney role to be respected, if even as a Patriots fan,

Like, you want them to consider all possible options, like a Ben Johnson even. Like, I think Ben Johnson was like a sham interview. Right. It's just, which is, too, like, it was just the, from the reporting that was there, and it's from really strong people, Greg Bedard, Tom Curran, they were saying things like 90 plus percent the whole time. They were saying that literally before any of this was happening. so it was always happening and maybe maybe it'll be good it'll definitely it should definitely help their

2025 like win loss record which is the idea maybe I shouldn't be whining about it I want to see what the offensive coordinator is if it winds up being Josh McDaniels I'm not going to be happy yeah let's get Josh McDaniels back in there get the gang back together Greg what's Bill what's Patricia doing the only he's down with Bill right that's right I think so thank you that's going to go great yeah that is too and yeah the here that he's bringing in his GM candidate that isn't necessarily

going to be the GM because Elliot Wolf will still be there, but maybe he'll be over Elliot Wolf. So this is that was a problem for Rabel back there and I don't want all this like palace intrigue and source offs and all of that, but palace intrigue in New England. No.

Exactly. Before we go and yeah, we appreciate everyone listening to two shows with us. This weekend. I do want to let you know how you can contribute to the American Red Cross relief effort. Obviously, it's been a really difficult week with the wildfires across the greater L.A. region. Families affected by those fires do need support, and you can help the American Red Cross respond, help people recover from the disasters, donate today to support the relief efforts by going

to Red Cross.org slash NFL. And yeah, I know I know people because I know they've reached out in my life wanting to know. And it's so crazy how quickly everything changes, you know, and how this fire is going. Saturday, it was moving, like, down the 405 is moving east and it was moving south. It was moving away, basically, from where I was. And the strength of this fire was it changed dramatically between Thursday and Friday night was getting to be really scary. And then Saturday, like, it was my son's birthday this

weekend. And we wanted to go up to take him to his favorite card store and go buy some cards. And I'm driving back on the four or five past it. And it's a crazy world we're living in. And you can just see this incredibly huge buyer right to your right. And everyone else is just like going about their day because they say it's safe to drive there. And then by Sunday, it was, I think, the most positive day that we've had this whole time, the Palisades fire is under better control than it's been this whole time and things are really looking up in the short term. So that is really good. But Tuesday is supposed to bring like more more wind, like a crazy wind event and it could all start up in different places in the city. And it's been it's been a lot to deal with

Patrick, obviously stressful for so many people that are affected much more than we are. Yeah, and Absolutely. And there's resources. I'm going to put some out. If you're listening, you'll scroll back on Blue Sky, Twitter. Still some volunteers needed. If you're looking in the L.A. area, several different spots as a Google doc going around that we'll be able to share. But just a thanks going out to all the firefighters, including the 30% of whom are incarcerated, out there with shovels digging, literally, to prevent fire spread. And, you know, rescue workers, just by name, everybody out that's bringing clothes, food, finding places for cats and dogs, really just our little adopted hometown here. I know. I love L.A. and it's such a big place. It's hard to put your arms around it. And yet it can feel almost small in a situation like this.

And everywhere I go here, I see a lot of lines to donate around me because I'm in San Francisco. of Monica, which is right next to the palisades there, and a lot of people trying to help and coming together as a community. And yeah, I like, you know how, shout out to Mexico for sending up a bunch of firefighters. Like, I saw him. I saw him go by. I was like, there we go. Like, we're getting it. We're getting it done. Like, and as we move forward into this week, we can just only hope that it continues to get better and everyone stay safe and yeah we're just we're just hoping for the best it's all we can do and and shook i'll be back with you on on monday night

thank you kevin patria thanks for having me guys stopping by come on do this a natural yeah just fly out just for this silver i know right you're getting fluid out silver fox here uh look uh we're down to only one game left in wild card weekend you No football is back. Give us a good one, Vikings and Rams. Hey, everybody. Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks.

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