NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Wild Card Sunday Recap: Josh Allen's Road Win, Patriots Defense Stands Tall and 49ers Get Seahawks Rematch

Episode Date: January 12, 2026

Gregg Rosenthal is joined by Patrick Claybon and Nick Shook to recap all of the Wild Card action from Sunday starting with Bills at Jaguars followed by Chargers at Patriots (31:20) and 49ers at Eagles (48:00). Note: time codes approximate. NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. What's up? It's Cam Jordan. I'm back with season three of your favorite podcast, The Off the Edge with Cam Jordan podcast. It's happening every Wednesday to hear conversations with my friends and stars for the NFL, the sports world in general, and entertainment. About anything from teams and players making waves to pop culture.

And I'll take you inside my journey through my 15th season in the NFL. Looking forward to you joining me this season, the season of more, on The Off The Off The Edge with Cam Joom podcast. Catch new episode. every Wednesday on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Brought to you by Liberty Mutual Insurance. Only pay for what you need. Liberty, Liberty, Liberty, Liberty. Welcome to NFL Daily, where you should never pick against Josh Allen in the playoffs.

I'm Greg Rosenthal. I'm here in the Chris Wesleyan podcast studio with my friend, Patrick Claibon, joined by my other friend, Nick Shook. They're actually my only two friends in life, because I'm only friends with whoever is on NFL daily with me at that very moment. At that moment. And that's these two guys tonight. What a weekend. This has been. I feel like I haven't seen you in a while.

Shook, how you doing? Oh, fantastic. What a week of football we had. I mean, yesterday was fantastic. Today was great. Even Sunday night was entertaining enough. Okay. You know, the Patriots and the Chargers didn't really live up to what this wildcard weekend has been.

It's funny. You know, right when they yank away the Super from Super Wildcard Weekend, we get an insane collection of games. I thought it would be tough to top Saturday. But now that we're five games in, there has been 12 fourth quarter lead changes in this wildcard weekend, Patrick, all in the first four games. That is double the amount of any fourth quarter lead changes in any entire playoffs

in any season in NFL history. That's how many times, like we have. been in jeopardy of who is going to win this game and who's going to advance, but we know now nine teams are only left with a Monday nighter to go. Yes. And the teams that lost despite them being in close circumstances with small margins, they're all bad. They have to get rid of them. Their seasons were all worthless. And that's the idea that people are going to have and it's all vapid. Not here though. Not on this program. We, we can be smarter than that. Except for the Greg Roman and the Chargers offense. Actually, that was all bad. So,

Yes, the divisional round is set. We don't know the exact times of the divisional round games, but we do know the days, the 49ers, despite Kyle Shanahan pleading to play on Sunday because it would be unfair to make them go on a short week for the third time in four weeks. They put them on Saturday. And we will get that 49ers Seahawks rematch on Saturday,

as well as the Broncos bills. We will have the Patriots on Saturday. Sunday going up against the winner of Houston and Pittsburgh. And how about the Rams and the Bears? Not a common matchup in the playoffs. It's been over 30 years since the Rams and the Bears have played. And so that's going to be our divisional round weekend. Really excited for that.

But first, I'm even more excited to go through these games. Because of all these great games this weekend, I will plant my flag that the best was the Bills and the Jaguars. Let's go to Jacksonville. Empty set. Lawrence back to pass. Looking on an inbreaker. Brook it up and intercepted.

Picked off by Cole Bishop. Buffalo's going to win the wild card game here in Jacksonville. I mean, Josh Allen played great. Three touchdowns. Just about a perfect game. But this might have been the Trinavius White game. I mean, three passes defense in a game. Locked down coverage.

And he tips a ball. At the end, when you thought maybe Trevor Lawrence had a little. more magic in an outstanding game back and forth. Like I mentioned, four lead changes, touchdowns throughout the fourth quarter. But it is the Bills and Josh Allen and a resourceful banged-up defense that gets to win 27 to 24. They advance and they are heading to Denver. What stuck out to you most, Patrick, in this game?

It was the missed opportunities for the Jacksonville Jaguars who were running the ball exceptionally well against the Bill's defense that struggled to stop the. the run, making explosive plays on the ground and not capitalizing on those opportunities. They get the turnover on the Ray Davis fumble on the kickoff, not able to get any points out of that. And of course, the play that we'll have a chance to talk about as we get into the game. But to me, ultimately deciding the game, Greg Newsom biting on the end brink. And letting Brandon Cooks run free for 36 yards.

And the time and the way things played out completely changed the complexion of the final. You're tough on Greg Newsom. I am. Okay, he did bite on it, but it was an outstanding play. If you're going to bring it up, let's just talk about it right now. If you're watching on YouTube, you can watch this video. And I think the Alt-22 really does it justice. Because when Josh Allen releases the ball, like Brandon Cooks is still 10 yards behind them.

And this is, you know, with under three minutes to go in the game, a deep shot to Brandon Cooks, which ends up helping to set up the game-winning, touchdown. It wasn't a day of big plays for Josh Allen and Brandon Cooks. But this was a massive one. And I just thought Josh Allen really had this game calibrated well. I say you're tough on Newsom because some of the Jaguars reporters think that maybe the coverage indicated it should have been one of the safety's responsibilities, Antonio Hamilton. I'm not a coach. I don't really know. But Greg Newsom has been a problem. And I do think the cornerbacks for the Jaguars were a problem today. And ultimately,

I just thought Josh Allen played one of the best games of his career. And I threw out on Blue Sky or Twitter. I thought it was a perfect game from him just about. And I can't believe how much pushback I got from this. Tell me what you thought about Josh Allen going to Jacksonville, Nick, and getting this thing done. Well, I'm glad that he exercised the whole Josh Allen can't win a playoff game on the road, demon.

I'm glad that's out of the way. That's one more talking point that we can throw in the trash and leave there forever. Thank God. Smash it like a compactor. They're just going to have another one that doesn't make any sense. I know. Has it won the Super Bowl? Has it one that?

Oh, Lamar still doesn't have a playoff win. We got rid of that one too. I was not too surprised to see the bills have to turn to him to lead them to victory. I was surprised that he was able to do it. Not because he's Josh Allen, but because he's banged up. He's got this foot issue. He was dealing with other issues in this game.

And it's not like he was avoiding contact. And yet he found it within himself to get the job done with plays like that. By the way, that is Greg Newsom on that in that deep third cover three that he hesitated because Devin Lloyd looked like he was going to hit Josh Allen. That pass is never going to get there. But he forgot that he was playing coverage against a reigning MVP with an incredible arm that's going to be able to throw it beyond him. A nice moment for Brandon Cooks who spent most of his season in anonymity in New Orleans before

asking to leave and ending up with the bills. Sometimes signings like that just work out great. And it was perfect for Allen who spread the ball among so many guys. So you got Khalil Shakir, who was the big guy. for him with 12 catches. He had Brandon Cooks. He had Keon Coleman, Dawson Knox, Dalton Kincaid, Gabe Davis, Tyrell Schavers. Everybody touched the football in the passing game. And that's all because of Allen's ability to distribute. Find guys open consistently. Every time you thought, you know what, this is where it's going to end right there.

They're going to get stopped right here. It didn't happen. And fittingly, could not be a more fitting moment than the bills, the team with the coach, as you pointed out on social media, Greg, that wanted to ban and campaigned against the tush push, turning to the tush push to score the set them up for the game winning touchdown. Yes. So they line up on a key fourth down late in the game, and they go for the tush push, and it doesn't just get the first down.

They get all the way down to the one yard line. It's about a minute, 10 seconds, when they snap that ball at the 11. And Josh Allen, with a big help from Osiris Torrance, just pushes him over the defensive backs. I'm not sure why there wasn't more beef in the middle of that Jaguar's line than that moment. But honestly, if you were looking for a weakness in this Jaguars team, I think the defensive tackles have sometimes been that weakness.

Certainly not a lot of pass rush juice there. And sometimes we're vulnerable in this season. And it gets them down to the one yard line. And while we're here, like, let's just get into sort of the game management of it all. if the bills had given up a game-tying field goal because they gave the Jaguars so much time, Patrick, do you think that Sean McDermott should have taken any heat for not doing the Mike Vrable?

Which I was saying in the moment, which was on first down, trying not to score. Because the Jaguars used their last time out when the ball got to about the half-yard line there. There's about a minute and 10 to go. And you could have, you could have tried to do something where you have Josh Allen jump forward

and he gets back to like the line of scrimmage basically to the one and a half yard line. Kill the clock down to about 20 seconds here and not give the Jaguars a chance. If you're that confident in your running game, you have all your timeouts. You're laughing at me. You have all three timeouts.

And you're Josh Allen. I actually, I didn't think it was that crazy to have tried to do that. I think even Mike Rable, who famously Mike Brableed, would consider not Mike Raveling in this scenario in the postseason. where, you know, we'll have a chance to talk about the closing moments for the Philadelphia Eagles,

where Tom Brady's up there talking about, you know, if you don't want to score too much time. Yeah, you can also not score at all. And I think that is in the books. And I recognize we're in 2026 now. It's crazy. And we're playing numbers. It's all sorts of games. It's not about the numbers.

It's about just trying to win the game in this case. And I think scoring the touchdown worked out for them. I think most of the times if I don't know when we're going to get to the point. where that particular touchdown somebody's going to have, well, my model says, no, my model's going to say score. It's probably till I'm in the dirt. To me, it's not about the model so much as you have Josh Allen.

That play has been unstoppable. And the Jack last year against Kansas City. Okay. Okay. But you had three timeouts. It was unstoppable in this game. And, you know, they used it a few times in this game. And Liam Cohen, you know, allowed the, the bills to score the touchdown there.

He told the defense let them score. because the only chance they had to win was to let them score. And so sometimes you don't want to do the thing that the other team wants you to do. I meant to start this whole thing by throwing it back to this week, Nick, because I think it was really instructive when Josh Allen spoke at the podium this week in his press conference. Sometimes you really learned some things from this. And he said, you know, he did a big self-scout with Joe Brady during their time preparing for this game.

and he talked a lot about how much he had been missing, that he'd been taking way too many sacks. So he wasn't trying to make a big play, that he hadn't been taking the checkdowns, that actually there were guys open in the offense for short gains that he just wasn't doing, that he was trying to do too much. And watching this game,

I think you really felt that. Like the completion percentage was sky high, and he avoided making any mistakes, stake throughout the game. He kept the team on schedule throughout. And if you think about the plays after Brandon Cooks that set up that tush push, 227 left in the game, the next three plays are a two-yard throw to Dawson Knox, a four-yard throw to Killeel Shakir, and a three-yard throw to Shakir. Now, either one of those, I did go back and watch it, like the last two, they could have broke loose and he was given his receivers a chance to maybe, but he was taking what was there

and taking the percentage plays. And I think that combination of like really intelligent quarterback play today against a really good Jaguars defense and then doing the Josh Allen awesome things makes him when he does that the best quarterback on earth. It also makes up for a running game that wasn't really effective today. James Cook averaging under four, I mean, their rushing attack as a total finish is under 80 yards.

That's usually their bread and butter. The way they can really beat a team as if you can establish the run and lean on that and then let Josh Allen work from there. Instead, he basically created a pseudo running game with quick passes. Like you said, under two and a half seconds, he was 16 to 17 for 173 yards in a touchdown. So you're absolutely right. It shows up in the numbers.

The way you felt when you were watching this game shows up in the numbers. And it also balances out an offense that, again, is missing that running game. And the beauty of it, too, is that you take those two, three yard completions. If you can consistently do that, it becomes death by a million paper cuts, because at the same time, you are dominating time of possession. They win time of possession by like seven minutes in this game. That is the formula to win a road playoff game. Control possession, limit mistakes,

make sure that you can put together long drives and cash in at the end. And that's ultimately, save for that third quarter where neither team could really cash in. That's what they did. And that's how they won this game. Yeah. And also, you know, limiting the number of opportunities for the Jacksonville Jaguars,

who did their own amount of limiting, where Trevor Lawrence having those two interceptions, including the last one, where you could see why, So, you know, Greg celebrates his friends, but also takes shots at them for picking the Jacksonville Jaguars to win a home game. What are you saying, taking shots? I took a shot at you? Yes.

I mean, I was taking a shot of myself, too. I picked the Jaguars to win this game, too. Well, you know, we lose together. Yeah, we did. As the Jacksonville Jaguars. Because not just a Herculean performance by Josh Allen doing all the things, battling multiple injuries, some of them coming in this game, where he and Stafford on, consecutive days bang up their throwing hand by hitting somebody on the follow-through because they throw the ball with that much velocity.

But where Trevor Lawrence just didn't necessarily make those plays. It made them during the aspects of the game where you felt like the Jacks were going to win. But in those moments, the ball just didn't necessarily bounce the Jags way. And you thought you were going to get like a deep shot. We didn't get deep Brian Thomas Jr. all game. coming late, got possession BTJ in Parker, Washington, and as well as, you know, strange making plays in the past game. ETN was great out of the backfield, but living up the middle where that's not really

Trevor Lawrence's game. You want to see, like I understand during the stretch where he was hitting everything, completing all those passes over the middle, it was great for the Jacksonville Jagbars, but you want to see him extending the ball to the sideline, and it just never happened in this game. And it's a credit to Dredavius White, the resurgent Tredavius White. Yep. At some point, Trey White and Brandon Cooks got to, like, Rajal Ghoul's, you know, fountain and got in there and got all healed up because they were spectacular.

So the Jaguars got nine passes defense, and that includes the two interceptions of Trevor Lawrence. So they got their hands on Trevor Lawrence's passes nine times. The Jaguars didn't touch one of Josh Allen's passes. not a single pass defense. And if you look at their outside cornerbacks, Jerry and Jones and Greg Newsom, maybe Jerry and Jones was in the slot, actually. And they gave up, according to PFF's coverage stats,

13 catches in 14 pass attempts for 152 yards. That was a big difference. And, you know, you mentioned Trevor Lawrence, like, yeah, he had those two interceptions. And it's crazy who's getting it done for Buffalo. They lose Jordan Poirer, early in this game, but it's Shaq Thompson making an interception. It's Tredavius White making plays.

I know Joey Boas is new to the Bills, but it's Joey Bosa. Matt Milano is out there in the biggest a moment. It's this old guard of the bills getting it done. And to me, it was impressive. Let's actually listen to Sean McDermott, not talking about the defense, but talking about his quarterback after the game. Well, it trickles down from him in terms of the team's toughness.

I mean, he's, when you're quarterbacks, that type of warrior, that type of competitor. It's just, like I said, from a leadership standpoint, it just goes through the whole team. The thing is, like, I thought Heinz Allen and Trayvon Walker had great games. And Eric Armstead had a pretty good game, too. Like, they were getting after Josh Allen. I really did think it was kind of the difference was that, like, Allen won so many plays before the snap. I'm thinking, like, early third quarter, some of those drives. too, like where he knew exactly where the coverage was going to be.

And Trevor Lawrence just made a couple mistakes. But I think Trevor Lawrence played a good second half. He didn't play great in the first half. But he also led the team shook to two fourth quarter touchdown drives. Absolutely nails. If we're talking, you know, if his defense shows up like they have all year, we're talking about him with two clutch fourth quarter drives and a fourth quarter comeback in this game.

Yeah. And emphatic touchdown drives that made me think, okay, they have a real shot at this. You know, they fall, they score a touchdown. They fall behind. They score another touchdown. They answer. And it's like, all right, well, now it's on the defense.

And I think, you know, ultimately in a playoff game, the margin just becomes, for error, becomes so slim. And those two interceptions kind of compound, the fact that you didn't turn that take away early in the game into points and ends up burning you by the end of the game. And that's the way playoff games go. And like you said, you know, you're right about the front, the Jacksonville front. You look at their pressure numbers. And we see five pressures for Tray on Walker, four for Josh Heinz Allen, three for Devin,

three for Devin Lloyd, combined between all of them one sack. I mean, you're getting close, but you're not getting home. It's the slim difference there. And ultimately, that's what doomed them. And about Trevor, too, you're right. I feel like he overcame those earlier struggles, but everything was still really difficult. And that's not what we saw from the Jaguars down the stretch offensively. They were a well-oiled machine.

And they ran into a stiff challenge today. And while they overcame it at times, the total product was not enough to win this game. And, you know, it really bonds you about the Jacksonville defense. I thought they had a really good plan for limiting James Cook. And maybe they had too much of good plan for limiting James Cook because it allowed Josh Allen to pick them apart with those quick throws. That's a fair point. The bills, you know, held to 79 yards on the ground.

And I do think, well, let's give the Jaguars one more good highlight of the year. I'm going to miss Frank Frangy. I do think Lawrence did show some of his growth in this game. Both of his touchdowns were to guys. that were very clearly not his first read. So he's going one to two to three faster than he ever has in his career, including this touchdown to Parker Washington. Second down from the stick, dropping us Trevor, looking, looking, still looking.

Now fires toward the back of the end zone. And more going to be caught. Touchdown back in the end zone. Parker Washington. I mean, Trevor stuck it in there. Parker caught it from the score. Oh, man, you want to talk about a tough catch and a BB by the quarterback. Christian Benford is hanging over the back of Parker Washington.

That's a heck of the catch. What a freaking season by Parker Washington. Catches seven passes for 107 yards. That's a great throw. Another couple good ones on the touchdown drive that ended up with a Travis E.TN touchdown as a receiver. But man, you do look back a little bit on some missed opportunities. You said that's what stands out to you.

I think the questions for me would be, you know, know, Cam Little, your big time kicker, misses a kick that felt like a miracle to even get because of a whole lot of chicanery right before halftime after a big throw by Trevor Lawrence. And then Cam Little misses it. You know, like you need your best players to step up. He misses that kick, which was under 60 yards,

which for him is very makeable. You don't get the points, as Shook mentioned, after the turnover because you go for it on fourth down and you come up like half a yard short. and then they kind of went away from the run. Do you think they should have, like, run the ball more in this game? Like, I'm a little torn on that because that maybe was true in the first half. And the second half, like, the offense was effective.

They scored three straight possessions, but they didn't run a ton, considering their success rate was through the roof, and the bills have struggled to stop the run all year. Well, some of those big rushing plays came on first down. It kind of skews the number, especially on that Toot and Drive, where I believe he had back-to-back carries on first down. that went for big gains. And so the rushing numbers.

And then he only had one more carry the whole rest of the day after that drive. But as you mentioned, the offense was really humming towards the end of the game. It was really the bills being able to keep possession of the football would limit those opportunities where the Jags just ran out of chances to run the ball, pass the ball, do anything because Buffalo was constantly staying on the field because they have a play that's unstoppable, especially for the Jags. That's the thing is that's why if I'm a Jags fan, it's tough. I watched this game and it felt different than the other five games. To me, I watched this game and I thought, these are two teams, and I know this is true for most of the teams I've played this week, but I really believe it with you.

These are two teams that can win the Super Bowl, and they're playing like Super Bowl level play on both sides. Both coaches are getting it done. I think it was a great game plan for Sean McDermott to limit as much as he could on his defense. He is still a very good defensive coach, considering the personnel they have, this was a good plan. And it was a complimentary game by his offense. And the Jaguars were up for the challenge too.

Liam Cohen, it's his first time in the playoffs. He was not afraid. I mean, he's calling direct snaps to Travis E.TN on the final drive. He called a run to Parker Washington in the red zone on the last drive. It finishes with a touchdown. If it didn't work, everyone would have been like, oh, you got too cute. Really, the one criticism for Cohen after the game. was, you know, do you regret going for it on fourth down early in the game?

Here's what he had to say. Regret not taking the points of field goal. Not at all. Not at all. Not even a close decision. It was all go for it on all the metrics. And, you know, with where you're at down there that low, you got to go for it. I know you're sick of the models that you believe don't even do anything.

They just say go. Your thoughts, Patrick. Yeah, it's just a big folder with a green construction paper that says go on it. I think Liam Cohen, who's calling the plays, who's looking at the play that he wants to call, and he's the person who makes the decision. Yeah, like, I'm good with that decision. It's really a patch of turf that ultimately determines whether Trevor Lawrence ultimately gets that first down, as well as the rule about the quarterback going head first,

being giving yourself up so he doesn't even need to be down by contact in that situation. I don't mind that go. I think the Jags, you know, they lost the turnover battle, but they had a higher success rate. They almost doubled them up rushing the ball. They outgained them. The success rate was 51.9. It was a good offense performance by the Jacksonville Jaguars.

It's the nature of the game and the circumstances produced a loss here. Yeah, there were seven trips to the red zone, and that was the only one that didn't result in a touchdown. Every time these two teams got down there, they capitalized. what I mean. There was great defense on other sides of the field. And they were hitting. I mean, this was, I love, I love this game. To me, this was one of the best games of the entire season. Like, it's just high level stuff from both sides. And, and they were hitting. I know that makes Nick Shook happy watching this game. Oh, of course. I love it when football players get to the

playoffs and just turn it up to 11. It's like, it's almost like in the NBA when they're like, oh, suddenly we play defense, except in, in football, you have to play defense and play hard every week. It's just, it seems like it's a higher intensity in the playoffs. But I also agree with you, Patrick. It has nothing to do with the models for me. You go for it down there because it's an extra it's a bonus possession that you earned because of a turnover on a kick return so that's already in your pocket right like oh well we we weren't supposed to be here anyway so why not try to maximize it and the other thing is when you get to the playoffs why would you ever go away from your identity you do what got you there it was a good call

Trevor Lawrence career high rushing touchdowns this year good call slipped up a little bit short of the line to gain if he converts that maybe they score maybe we're talking about something different we're not rehashing this at all I'm totally fine with it stick with what got you there And if you lose the game because of it, so be it. And again, that was Shaq Thompson. Just kind of touching Lawrence there. I don't know if that made the difference of it. But it is crazy.

Like, we'll get into the bills all weeks, certainly. Like, if this is the team that gets them to the Super Bowl, it would be remarkable because, you know, they got, I don't know, who's that guy Hancock back there? Like, they got some players. Hey, you show some respect to Ohio State's Jordan Hancock. Jordan Hancock. They're just.

sticking it to get, they got Brandon Cooks who he heard Sean McDermott loving up Jacobi Myers during the week and who turned out to be the free agent pickup or rather the in season pickup that made the difference in this game. It was our guy. Brandon Bean justified. It was our guy

Brandon Cook. Before we move on from this game just a couple other little notes. The bills in the last two years this means something to me, I think, have ended the Jaguars eight game winning streak. The Chiefs, nine-game winning streak a year ago.

The Lions, 10-game winning streak a year ago, and the Patriots, 11-game winning streak this season. I mean, I don't know what that means, but just they're streak-stoppers, and that it means something. I feel for Jaguars fans, I do think for these teams that haven't been to the Super Bowl, it's interesting in the AFC.

Maybe this is just the fan side of me. There's something about how wide open this AFC is that I really feel five or six teams have such a good chance to actually make it, that normally you just feel like, okay, this is a building season. It was a great moment for the Jaguars, certainly. But I do think it was a missed opportunity, too, because if the ball just bounces a little different today or they make one or two more plays, there's absolutely a world where we're seeing Trevor Lawrence out there on Super Bowl opening night taking questions or winning the Super Bowl.

I really think they were that good of a team this year, which is why, you know, I just think it's a painful, you know, loss, even if they played pretty well today, Shook. It's also like Dan Campbell said when they lost the NFC championship game with the 49ers a few years ago. It's hard to get back here. I know it's only wildcard weekend and I do think that they will be back. And this is the first step in Liam Cohen's first year. But it's really hard to get back there even to wildcard weekend because you got to stay healthy. You got to hit your stray at the right time and they were hitting their stride at the right time.

This was the team in the AFC that I felt the most confident in because of the way that they looked over the last month and a half. So it's disheartening as just a ball enjoyer, a football enjoyer to see. the Jaguars end like this. But I'm not a fan of moral victories, but Jaguar fans can feel so much better about where their team is now than where they were even just a year ago, the future remains bright. Yeah, you know, history and the way that we

look at the playoffs and the postseason, you know, they will be told that the Miles Jack not being downed team, the Saxonville team, because they made it farther, it was better than this team. I think this was the better Jacksonville Jaguars team. It's just the circumstances led to a loss. And yeah, you're going to get the player you trade it up for in the top five,

back, I believe he will primarily play corner next year because I believe he's the best cornerback on the team. And that's what they needed. Yeah, that's a great call. They could have used him today. I was surprised. I'm always fascinated by Patrick's emotions because he's an intellectual guy. He doesn't carry his emotions on his sleeves. What?

And you said that this one hurt you more than you expected. Yeah, because they're a good team. They've been so good. And I know that the way that we talk about football teams and all this stuff. And that's why I kind of lamented at the top of the show. Everybody lost is bad. You don't deserve to have any good memories from the team. This was a good football team.

And it's rough for the folks. In Jacksonville, you know, they steal home games from them every single year. They deserve this team to be better. They're not even going to play home games in a couple of years. They go to Orlando for a year. Don't you have affection, though, for our great producer, Eric Roberts. Yeah. And all the Bills fans out there.

Congrats, Eric. How was your experience? Thank you. You're watching this. It was great. Had the family over. It got a nice time slot for it. So living room full of Roberts enjoyed the day.

Came into work happy and on to the next one. Oh, yeah, that was Josh Allen in the locker room too after he's like, this one means like all it means is we got the right to play another one. I was fired up and I was. They don't even enjoy it. Folks in Jacksonville feel pretty great if they got to win. I know. And I was looking at that locker room.

I was like, yeah, they do need a new stadium because like it was like you couldn't even have like half the team in one area of the locker room. Like everyone's just in like a hallway. basically. You'd be surprised. You'd be surprised the state of some of the visiting locker rooms. Some of the old ones. Sure. So, you know, Patrick, I like the sentiment there. And that

generosity of spirit was actually shared by a member of the media in Jacksonville today. Let's wrap this game just listening to a comment slash question to Liam Cohen. How you doing today? Lynn Jones, Jacksonville,

Free Press News. I just want to tell you, congratulations on your success, young man. You hold your head up, all right? You guys have had a most magnificent season. Thank you. He did a great job out there today. So you just hold your head up, okay? And ladies and gentlemen, Duvall, you the one, all right?

Keep it going. We got another season, okay? I appreciate it. Take care of and much continued success to you and the entire team. Thank you, ma'am. I love how Liam Cohen meets her in the eyes and he's emotional, and he appreciates that in the moment. And I saw that right away, and I was like, haven't seen that before.

That was different. And it's just like a nice way to go out on the game. And then because it's 2026, it became surprisingly enough to me. Like one of the biggest stories on social media throughout the day, which is a reminder to like, don't stay on social media because it's like every super strident serious journalist who said that was an abomination to everything that the press room should be about. It's like, let's calm down here. But also, you know, maybe the other side of things saying like, this was such a big.

beautiful. Just let the moments happen. We don't have to comment on everything. I will say, on blue sky, I did not see any of that criticism. That may have been on the site that's currently distributing non-consensual of revenge, you know. I hear you. I mean, may skew towards people who might not necessarily like that particular attitude from the person that asked a question. That might not argue in good faith. Look, and when he has a fair point, you got to recognize it. Let's take a break from this game. one of the games of the year.

Let's come back with one of the games. That wasn't one of the games of the year. It was a Patriots victory. You will hear Bob Sochi on the other side of this break. What's up? It's Cam Jordan. I'm back with season three of your favorite podcast, The Off the Edge with Cam Jordan podcast.

Tap in every Wednesday to hear conversations with my friends and stars for the NFL, the sports world in general, and entertainment. About anything from teams and players making waves to pop culture. And I'll take you inside my journey through my 15th season. in the NFL. Looking forward to you joining me this season, the season of more, on the Off the Edge with Cam Joined podcast.

Catch new episodes every Wednesday on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Brought to you by Liberty Mutual Insurance. Only pay for what you need. Liberty, Liberty, Liberty, Liberty. The fourth and nine for LA, two minutes to go.

Herbert dropped back. He's president. He's won by. John Robert, Sack back at the 45-yard line. He don't want to get up. The sixth sack. by New England. And the guy who gets to the quarterback was one of the stars of last year's Super Bowl

win for Philadelphia. A big ticket free agent. And boy is Milton Williams delivered for the paths this season. A fitting final offensive play for the Los Angeles Chargers. That was one of 11 quarterback hits on Justin Herber, as you heard there from Sochi and Scott Zolek on WBZ, one of six sacks by the Patriots. New England wins a game 16-3 that was reminiscent of their last playoff victory as a franchise in the Super Bowl 13-3 over the Rams. By the time Mike Vrable got bloodied up at the end of the game because Milton Williams headbutted him on the sidelines,

like I was kind of thinking Mike Vrable loves this more than anything, Shook. It was a game that, a season really, where Drake May and the offense has carried this team. And I think in terms of building up where they're going to go just this season and maybe in the future, I think he loved seeing his defense come out and just have a dominating performance like that. Let the record reflect that on this day,

January 11th, 2020, Mike Vrabel was officially canonized as the patron saint of football guys. For that moment, right there, getting bloodied by his own guy and just diving completely in, then wearing the bloody lip all the way to midfield to shake Jim Harbaugh's hand

at the end of a triumphant and dominant defensive performance for all the love that we give the New England Patriots and Drake May, the favorite twin MVP, which he did make a couple of plays, more than a couple of plays that were deserving of that recognition tonight. Today, this game in prime time was all about Vrabel's defense

and the Patriots doing what they used to do with Bill Belichick back when I was in middle school dominating a game on the defensive side of the ball. Middle school. And Mike Vrabel contains multitudes because while he's the same, Yes, I'm bleeding my own blood. And the post game quote was we talked about being willing to spill blood out there.

And Milton took that to heart. And so that's Mike Brable, consummate football guy. But he's also cerebral clock management, Mike Brable, where the chargers wanted to get the ball up and down the field, but they kept wanting to substitute. So he's sitting in full line change, raining clock. Yeah. As much as he possibly can.

He was literally telling the guys to slow down as they were running off the field. And so, like, get you a coach who can do both. And Mike Vrabel, clearly, like, the game plan was spectacular. On the other side, the Greg Roman situation has reached a point, the same point that we've been at for years. And perhaps Jim Harbaugh will recognize that, Greg. I think it could be the end of watching Greg Roman in major games. It just feels like he's been such a massive part of our lives as football fans for a while because those Harbaugh teams with Kaepernick and Alex Smith were, you know, so exciting. and then the Lamar Jackson teams, obviously, now Herbert,

he's just been associated with these teams that are right in the center of the NFL. And when I've gone to Chargers games, like that Eagles one stands out in this game too, there's nobody open. There's no, there's no formational diversity when you know the man coverage is coming, shook, and the blitz was insane.

The Patriots are not a heavy blitz team in general, but they were not getting home with four early in this. game and they sent the house. They had eight blitzes of six or more in this game. They had, you know, they had another zero blitz, like with seven. And they blitz almost half the snaps, which was not really their

style this year, but they basically realized early, oh, like, we can blitz. They're not going to communicate well to protect Herbert, and they're not going to get anyone open because they're not running any man-beaters. It was great performance by the

defense, but also, like, you want to see some adjustments by the Chargers in their coaches. Yeah, absolutely. What the timing of those blitzes, which were just repeated in the fourth quarter of this game, it kind of signaled two things to us. The immense respect for Justin Herbert and the fact that they didn't do it early because they were worried about him

capitalizing on having less men in coverage, and also the immense lack of respect for the Chargers' ability to adjust and the ability to pick up any stunts. I have not seen an offensive line get beaten that badly by stunts and by free rushers in a playoff game in a long time. And we shouldn't be surprised.

This is a Chargers line that has had a billion different combinations. They don't have their starting tackles. We can acknowledge all of that. It's not an excuse, but it is reality. It was surprising to me that it took the Patriots that long to then capitalize on it. But I think at that point, they realized, oh, you know what? They're not going to make us pay. Look at what they're doing here going, no huddle.

They're taking four-yard gains. There's less than four minutes left in the game. This is as fast as they can go. And we're also successfully slowing them down by substituting guys. So it was just a clear advantage, I think, on the part of the Patriots coaching staff, that they knew they had the Chargers exactly where they wanted them. And again, speaking about Greg Roman, it would be so perfect if this was his last moment in a big game that his quarterback finishes as his leading rusher.

10 carries for 57 yards for Justin Herbert because there is nothing doing on the ground game for the Chargers. Amarian Hampton only has a couple of snaps before his ankle injury is clearly holding him back. Kamani Vidal does the best he can, but we see a limited Chargers offense. The same Chargers offense that was limited throughout most of this season and they had to turn games into rock fights. This was a rock fight. They just forgot to bring rocks to the fight. Yeah, their defense, I think, played an excellent game, and we'll get to that.

But you mentioned the running game. Yeah, they have 30 rushing yards outside of Herbert. They only had 120 net passing yards in under three and a half yards per play, throwing the ball. And I think Herbert missed some throws. There was a couple, we were watching the game together, times in the game where I thought Herbert maybe had a checkdown on like a couple third downs where he didn't necessarily take it and he went for bigger

plays. So that's on him. And then I don't know if it's him not protecting himself or him just needed to make a play or the offensive lines playing terribly or all of the above. But man, he took some hits including a strip sack in the early portions of the fourth quarter that really felt kind of like when this game ended. Mervid again from the shotgun trips to the wide side right. He drops back, he stands in his pressure. He hit he stays on his speed running right

and then he goes down both lose. Patriots. Habit's havoc. Yeah. With the recovery. Yes. Unbelievable.

This defense has been able to do. Holy crap. That needs to be on the soundboard. Yeah. We should have led with that one. That's a banger. That's unreal. But the circumstances

on that sack. You go back and look, they come up in trips. Eventually, when Herbert hits the top of his drop, I'm not being hyperbolic here. Between Keenan Allen and Ladd McConkey, they are two yards away from each other. They are immediately next to each other. One defender is occupying two chargers receivers,

so Herbo comes off of that. By the time he comes off of that, there's nothing for him to do, like to try to escape and make the play. And it's this constant balance where you talk about him taking the four-yard gains, the four-yard gains were the only option on some of these plays down the stretch where it's just you would like to give the quarterback some options. You would like to protect him.

The Chargers were incapable of doing any of that. I know Rashad Slater and Joe Alt are great players. I don't know that having them on the field tonight would have necessarily changed so much of the circumstances for Justin Herbert. Clearly it would have helped. But considering that this is the product for the Chargers, I don't know what they could have done. In two playoff games, they've scored a total of one touchdown on 22 offensive possessions.

Been outscored. You know, if you're combining those two games, 48 to 15. And, you know, it just was tough to watch. You sent out the dots of the final fourth down play, too, where it's just like every Chargers receiver is somehow double covered. Even though there's two or three guys coming three through the offensive line, it's crazy. But also give credit to the Patriots.

I thought Christian Gonzalez, his best game of the season. Five targets his way. Zero catches. I don't think he's been at his very, very best this year. He was awesome in this game. Carlton Davis with some big sacks. Christian Ellis at linebacker was the spy all game. And I thought played really well.

Marcus Jones, you know, they are one of the best tackling teams, if not the best tackling teams in the NFL. And I've been down on the Patriots defense all season. That's one thing that they do really well. They don't allow YAC. They don't allow, you know, run after contact either. They have the fewest miss tack. in the league. And you really saw that they were, they were swarming tonight. Let's, let's talk a little bit

about the Patriots on offense. Because look, the numbers will say that they move the ball all game. Like they, did they get over 400 yards? No, not quite. Not a ton of possessions. But, you know, they get close to 400 yards. They move the ball all game, but they couldn't capitalize. Nick, what, what did you see out of Drake May in his first playoff game? A mix. There were moments where he took off for positive games, his legs, which is what we've seen him do. In the second half, I thought he got more comfortable with pocket navigation and making plays. He obviously had the biggest play of the game to give them the only touchdown of the game. But early on, it felt like the pressure of the moment was

maybe a little too big for him. A little bit of like Jalen hurts to him where he was almost trying to make the perfect play. And you could just see like this, not the speed, but just like the gravity of the moment. He had to settle in, but he did settle in. And he was able to keep them going. The run right before halftime was obviously just like vintage him. I can't, can we say vintage about a guy in his second year? Sure. Classic Drake May, where he's just running down the middle of the field untouched to get

them into field goal range. So overall, we give him a good grade and he finished very strong. He looked good in the second half, just not one of his best games, but that's perfectly fine. You're in a playoff game in which your defense is playing fantastically. You don't really have to do that much. And when the time came for him to do the most important things, he did. Yeah, he ends up running for 60. yards. Remandre was very efficient with 53 yards on the ground. They ran it pretty well. They didn't run it

that often in the game which surprised me. I think if May has a bugaboo this year, it's the sack fumble. A lot of times he's recovered them. But in this game, you know, he has one in the fourth quarter where he gets absolutely blasted. There's another one where

Will Campbell let's your guy, Daffei Owe, beat him. And that one I don't really put on May too much. He holds on the ball a little long but, like, you know, Campbell also gets beat behind him. And so, you know, three turnovers is not ideal. The first one is on a tipped interception. All of them you can kind of find, you know, context for.

But otherwise, there were a lot of dots in this game. And you give the Chargers defense credit. Like, I think Jesse Minter had a game-winning plan and a game-winning performance. Unfortunately, you know, there's other aspects to the game. And their great defense this year was kind of for not. Yeah. And you really didn't have to, clearly, the Patriots could have protected the ball a little bit better,

but they didn't necessarily need all the punching power, considering the performance the defense was putting up there. And Drake May is going to take some sex. Yeah, it's fair. A guy that takes shots down the field like that is going to give up some opportunities for the defense. But in terms of the way that he played, I think in the way that the charges approach this game,

a solid game by Drake May, where, you know, the doubters are guys. going to lean in and be like, oh, look, we told you something. Like, come on. And the doubters by that, you mean, MJD coming by. You just walked by. Oh, my God. You know, he goes by me in the news.

This is your MVP. This is your MVP. It's like, okay. Three turnovers, sure. But did average over nine yards per attempt and was the game's leading rusher. And in a lot of, like, moments that I thought, you know, didn't make that our highlight real. He was money. There was a third and ten.

coming off his own goal line where he fires one into Hunter Henry to get that touchdown drive going. And that's like a very Drake-made type of throw. There was a fourth down play before they get the field goal after, you know, they run a very curious trick play on third down. And he hits Kyle Williams on the sideline, trusting his rookie to make a play, trusting, you know, their fullback, Jack Westover to make a play. Efton Chisholm made a play in this game. And these were all great balls, a deep ball, the Kashan booty.

So there were a lot of good moments. And there was the nice touchdown to Hunter Henry. Now, the worst throw may have all game was the miss to Austin Hooper. They could have won, you know, kind of put this game away a little earlier, but they settled for a field goal there. But again, he sees one of his tight ends streaking open late, and he hits it. White wing, the extra tight end out there with a play fake. Drake on a deep drop, slides left, throws it to the end zone.

Hunter Helly makes a field bow. Look at this place. It's the left. Oh, my God. We get another week of that, Chuck. They will be hosting either the Texans or the Steelers. Oh, look at this. What's happening?

Welcome to Scott Zolak's Club of Euphoria, in which he can't comprehend that Gillette Stadium is packed with so many Rockets' Patriots fans. That was the throw of the game, folks. Drake May dropping it in the bucket to Hunter Henry right over the defender. That's the play that you want to look for in the highlight reel when he becomes NFL MVP, and we're going to celebrate it with some. some crazy lights for those you're not watching on YouTube.

I mean, people don't know. Shook is a man who can do many things. He can write. He can podcast about F1 and he can Twitch stream. And this is what? These are your Madden lights when you score a touchdown in Madden? Yeah, these are a big play lights. These are anytime you've got a big play,

it could be a turnover, block field goal, pick six when you jump a bubble for a touchdown. Any of those moments. Why you hold it out? Why you hold it out on who's, you know. Back here. I just brought it back right now. Okay, okay.

Do you think he strikes Bob on those situations? Scott Zolak? There's so many arm punches, so many shoulder punches. He's telling Bob to look at this place. Like, we're listening on the radio, Scott. You're telling Bob? The crowds, I mean, I guess it can't be like a surprise, but it has been a trend, I think, for some of these crowds in the playoffs

that haven't had a lot of home playoff football in a minute. the Jacksonville crowd was awesome. The Carolina crowd was absolutely incredible. And I know people would be like, wow, wow, the Patriots have it. But, you know, it's still been, what, seven years since a playoff win, they were happy to have another home game in Foxborough and they were ready to go. I did it. They did it. They overcame, Greg.

No, no. I'm not saying they overcame him. Just saying they had a good time. Let's say goodbye to this Chargers team. Ultimately, they overachieved. and people got a little mad of like Jim Harbaugh, you know, going back and forth of like, well, he didn't go for fourth down on the Patriot side of the 50 early and punted. And that was conservative like he is.

But then he did go for it inside the 10 and they didn't get it. And you're like, oh, Jim Harbaugh is never going to go for it again. And he didn't. He kicked the field goal inside the 10 later in the game. That ultimately wasn't what was going to matter in this game. They just got physically dominated. And I think it's going to have him look in the mirror and think. about his play caller and what they're going to do next.

Or not. We'll have to find out. Let's take one final break. We're going to come back with another coaching staff who is going to be facing some heat after the events of Sunday. What's up? It's Cam Jordan. I'm back with season three of your favorite podcast.

The Off the Edge with Cam Jordan podcast. Tap in every Wednesday to hear conversations with my friends and stars for the NFL, the sports world in general and entertainment. about anything from teams and players making waves to pop culture. And I'll take you inside my journey through my 15th season in the NFL. Looking forward to you joining me this season, the season of more on the Off the Edge with Cam Joined podcast. Catch new episodes every Wednesday on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcast. Brought to you by Liberty Mutual Insurance. Only pay for what you need. Liberty, Liberty, Liberty, Liberty. 49ers showing heavy, heavy pressure. Let's see if they peel out. Back out. Hertz, shotgun snap. Hurts steps up. Middle. Knocked away by Eric Kendricks.

The 49ers take over on downs. Do you? What a play. The defense has time and time again. Two interceptions thrown by the 49ers. George Kittles devastating injury in the second quarter. And now the offense comes out of the field and they can put this thing away here in Philly. To the exits, they go.

Great call there by Guy Haberman on K. N-B-R, because he not only called the play, but he gave the context of everything that this 49ers team has overcome, including yes, playing two linebackers, one in Eric Kendricks, who made that play, who were not on the active roster a month ago and played over 70 snaps in this game, and they hold the Eagles to 19 points. 49ers win 23 to 19. I think it's been a great coaching job this season by Kyle Shanahan and an even better job by his players to step up. Patrick, I'm going to start talking about actually the offense because I know Brock threw a couple interceptions in this game. But the Eagles in the Vic Fangio era have been so good on defense.

This 49ers team actually had the highest success rate of any team against the Eagles in any game against Vic Fangio's defense. and I was impressed ultimately without George Kittle who leaves with an Achilles injury in the second quarter and without, you know, Ricky Pearsall and obviously Brandon Ayuk hasn't been there all year. Like, they still just find a way to get it done and get enough on offense against a great Philadelphia squad on the other side. And you can see it also in those interceptions where Brock Purdy was not afraid to challenge

Quinn John Mitchell. He got away with it early on in the game, but that was continued throughout the course of the game, including Brock getting first downs and moving the sticks with his legs as well, where this team, whoever's available, has executed to a high level all season long. I think this was a classic Brock Purdy game. And I know the number is 18 to 31, two touchdowns, two interceptions, kind of hides that fact when Juan Jennings comes in and, you know,

we have a chance to celebrate Tennessee quarterback, Juan Jennings. Hell yeah. Once again, in making a great play call, great execution, by he as well as Christian McCaffrey and the entire team where when you see when it works, this 49ers team is such a well-oiled machine and there was every opportunity for it to fall apart

with Jalen Carter having a decent game, getting the pressures, just considering the stakes and the circumstances and what was up against Brock Purdy, I think this was a great game. I agree. Actually, it reminds me a lot of the Drake May game where, yeah, there were a couple like really big mistakes, but most of the plays were absolutely excellent,

and he kept firing despite mistakes. The second half, kind of was classic, like, Brock Purdy era 49ers. If you knew nothing else other than just looking at the drive chart, it's just kind of classic. Interception, three and out, touchdown, interception, touchdown. It's just like, but ultimately, that's two fourth quarter touchdowns, And I thought he played a really good first half, which that, you know, completely ignores in terms of being very calculating, kind of being like the Josh Allen from today, making all the right decisions. And then he got got a couple times by a really good performance by Quinnian Mitchell in the second half.

But ultimately, like, you're winning a game where your leading receiver by far is DeMarcus Robinson. That's your number one. And your number three after Christian McCaffrey is Kyle Eusecheck, who like he's having to throw to his back short. shoulder because there's like very little open space in this Philadelphia defense and they're completing difficult catches. And maybe this season doesn't continue after next week. We'll see. I think they got a chance against Seattle. But I think it's an achievement for this team to have made it to the final eight. It is an achievement. And while I agree that their ceiling is lower because of everybody that they've lacked and, you know, because of injury and everything else, it also kind of

makes them dangerous because they've spent so much of this season without their key guys. Like I thought about the George Kittle injury today. Most teams that had George Kittle all year would be devastated by the loss of that guy, a central figure in your game plan. They wouldn't know where to turn. Luckily, the 49ers have spent a good chunk of games this season without George Kittle, and that's how we got to learn who Jake Tungis was. And he makes a catch in the second half.

And as soon as he makes that catch, I'm like, oh, they've been here. They know what to do without them. They'll be fine. And the same thing goes with their receiving core, with DeMarcus Robinson with a long catch and run. And after that drive, they didn't move the ball for a while. It was very much a story of explosives and lulls and then putting together a couple of key drives late by just chipping away.

But that really exhibits the resilience of this football team that has already been through so much just to get here. And it also has another demonstration of Kyle Shanahan's ability to craft up a fantastic game plan, call the right plays in the right moments, and finish the job with a quarterback who is very sneakily elusive and was a problem for the Eagles who got, got home a lot of times and didn't finish the job.

And Purdy's ability to both slip sacks and then find the pocket and find the soft spots and deliver throws, that's what helped elevate them. So, yeah, I think that ultimately we'll probably wouldn't be surprised if they lose next week. But I also wouldn't be surprised if they made a run all the way to the Super Bowl because why not? Why not? They've already been, had been behind the eight ball with a hand tied behind their back this entire season. Why not?

Well, while we're here, let's actually listen to Juan Jennings after the game with our friend Mike Garifolo. Do you know who you're playing next week? I take a wild guess. I hope it's Seattle, though. It is Seattle. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. I can't wait. That's who we wanted. On to the divisional round. Go celebrate this one.

Man, I appreciate y'all, man. I just like that. He said that's who he wanted. That's who he wanted. We wanted Seattle again, and they will get that rematch. Yeah, this was a game where it's 16 to 10 after the Eagles have what was their most successful second half drive to that point, which was a 10 play 23 yard drive that took five minutes. If you want to know what the Eagles offense looked like in the second half, it looked like the Eagles offense in the second half from the entire season. It's absolutely ridiculous. And they go up 1610. And yet at that point, you still were wondering, maybe the Eagles defense is just going to be

too good and they can get away with settling for these field goals and not really doing anything on offense, but like in so many of their losses this year, ultimately that stagnation did come back to haunt them, but we didn't really know it until they gave that men, Joanne Jennings, the ball, but not as a receiver. Christian McCaffrey behind him. Skymore in motion, it's a trick play. They give it to Moore. Now flip to Juan Jennings and around. Jennings throws it to McCaffrey. He's got it. McCaffrey caught on 49ers. And that is the 49ers-owned Philly special. McCaffrey spikes the ball into the ground and the 49ers have tied the game. A rough period of time for Reed Blankenship.

Yes. In this one, he was able to get run over for a first down at one coverage bust earlier in the game. And in that one, he's looking at Jawan Jennings on the reverse, but his teammates are there. And CMC is really the only threat. And he gets past him. And it's a nice play to kind of hesitate and give Blanketship something to think about by Jowan Jennings. and then throwing that late. So late, in fact, the Jalen Carter gets a roughing the passer penalty on the wide receiver

throwing the ball. But it's just you got to tip your cap at a certain point to that execution. Because even if a blanket ship carries with CMC, like Jennings may put that ball over the top of his head anyway. And that actually came before a big read blanken chip penalty, which preceded the CMC touchdown that we'll listen to in a sec. But before we move on, that was from Purdy, not from Jennings. Before we move on from that play, though, that is dual threat quarterback, Joanne Jennings, as you mentioned. Drew Christensen, our great producer and former researcher in the NFL,

like he was popping in in our 40s and Free Agents episode during the week, live and pointing out when we were talking about Juan Jennings and his great quarterbacking skills, that this was a man who was once ranked a four-star recruit as the number five dual-threat quarterback in the entire NFL that year, just ahead of Sam Darnold, who hilariously was called a dual-threat quarterback as the number six. I mean, I know he's athletic.

I guess for high school, I guess for high school, yeah, you could imagine. Number six was Darnold. Number seven was Joe Burrow, and number nine was Lamar Jackson. So, I mean, that was a hell of, of a draft class and Joad Jennings was at top of it and he's now got more playoff touchdowns than Sam

Donald because he hit that Super Bowl one to CMC back in the in the Chief Super Bowl too so what a what a moment and that was kind of the moment I was like oh the Eagles are going to lose this game. It really felt like that. It was a perfectly executed trick play too not only because of Jennings there which by the way he throws that on the run

off one foot and it's an absolute dime to the outside shoulder to McCaffrey who makes a Willie Mays stack catch in the end zone to get the job done they couldn't have executed this any better. Brock Purdy even hung in to pretend like he was going to block. I just noticed that. Yeah, so did I just now.

Like, oh, wait, there's Brock Purdy pretending I may chip somebody. Probably not, but I might. And guess what? He didn't have to because Jennings is athletic enough to get the throw off perfectly off one foot. McCaffrey making a spectacular catch. And if you needed a moment in which the momentum of the game shifted permanently in favor of the 49ers, it was right there. Okay, but before we get to the dissecting.

of the end of the Philadelphia Eagles season and their chance at defending things. Let's listen to someone. I thought we weren't going to hear, in terms of being a play-by-play guy again this season, Will Gavin of Talk Sport. They sent my guy Will across the pond to go announce this game for TalkSport.

And I thought the Purdy throw to CMC and that drive was a really great evidence of Purdy's. maturation because a lot of times in that drive, he was getting to the second and third read. It wasn't the obvious throw. He wasn't forcing the ball in the biggest spot. Even though I know he had those two interceptions, he bounced back and he made some money throws, including this score. Hurdy in the gun, McCaffrey alongside him, three receivers right in Jennings, Kendrick Bourne, and DeMarcos Robinson. One receiver to the left is his tight end. He sends

Bourne in motion. Stomps his foot, gets the ball, looks to his right-hand side, steps up in the pocket, throws left and set. Touchdown Niners. Christian McCaffrey right on the G of the Eagles in the end zone. And in the fourth quarter, they retake the lead. San Francisco up 4.2319. And there's battered, bruised and banged up San Francisco team just won't take it lying down. I love it.

It will's a 49ers fan. I don't think he'll mind that being public information. He bowed him. Yeah. He's been doxed. I'm sure he wasn't saying that on that particular broadcast, but anyone who follows them, he knows. And yeah, what a performance and what a great coaching job too

by Robert Sala and doing it with this defense. And as we kind of transition here, Shook, I did think, like, maybe this was the perfect matchup for them. I mean, it's easy to say in hindsight. Because they're not a team that is going to get much pressure. And they still tried to blitz Jalen Hertz a lot. But Jalen Hertz and this. passing game is maybe one of the few ones in the playoffs that it's not necessarily about

the pressure. Like, they have not shown an ability necessarily to beat you even if Jalen Hertz is protected and certainly not over the middle of the field where I think the 49ers were most vulnerable. And I don't think it's a coincidence. Like, literally, that's how the game ended. Was Jalen Hertz being like a beat late to the middle of the field, an area where, just historically he hasn't really made hay as a quarterback. It's an interesting note about the matchup because I think going into this game, like I picked the 49ers in a three point win going into the game. Good job.

And I thought about it from both sides, which is, okay, let's think about their last game against a good defense. They could do absolutely nothing against Seattle. That's concerning. But if there's one team that you want to play and you know that you're going to have to score points to beat them and that that's your advantage because their offense is going to be stuck in the mud for most of the game, it's the Eagles because they can't.

figure out how to use the copious amounts of talent they have on that side of the ball. And we saw it again. It wasn't until the final drive of the game when they're going no huddle where they're starting to actually move the football consistently through the air. Everything was so difficult for them. I think about an early Saquan Barkley run where he cuts it back. And because I think it was one of the defensive backs lost contain, he gets a big run. You don't hear anything from him for the rest of the game because they don't run the ball well. Dank Bigsby runs it a little bit better. But ultimately they could not get into a rhythm, which is the story of their entire. season. And it's not just Jalen Hertz. It's the entire scheme. Hertz plays a part in it, of course.

They don't block as well as they did last year. But this operation is not creative. They have terrible calls on key downs. The fourth down that, you know, seals the victory for the 49ers that we played at the start of this recap. It was a great example of it. Where you're just running guys into the middle of the field and into traffic and Jalen's forced to make a quick decision. He's also a little responsible for breaking clean pockets sometimes. Like, just the whole operation is not good. And I think that it is far too telling from what this team has been all year. None of this is surprising. This is the exact frustration that sent AJ Brown to talk about it when he was streaming

on Twitch playing Madden one time. This is what fueled the drama on that side of the field. And I would be stunned, absolutely stunned that if Nick Siriani remains a coach, if he doesn't get rid of his offensive coordinator, Kevin Petulow. It just did not have a grip on the offense all year and what to do with this talent. and this is how their season, I think, properly ended. But the thing that I keep coming back to is, if you have to keep finding head coach level offensive coordinators

to make it work, then I think you've already found what a major part of the issue is, because everything, as Shook pointed out, that has gone wrong for the Eagles, did go wrong. We had Jalen leaving a pocket early, which is something he's always done consistently, even in the Super Bowls that he played spectacularly in. There was a drive.

by A.J. Brown on that final drive. One of the final Sequin plays that we got in the game because he got hurt, Tank Beeksby came in and relief. He worked it out on the sideline coming back in. But you have Dallas Goddard blocking Bryce Huff and getting absolutely washed to the extent where Sequin tries to cut back and he ends up rolling up on himself and he has to leave the game. And then we have the most inexplicable timeout I've ever seen in a football game where they want to make the play call better. has been bad all season long.

They want to get a, they want to get into a better play and talk about it more. Meanwhile, they could have had three timeouts to get the ball back. Instead, they chose to have a discussion where it's like this is, this is the Eagles 2025 season writ large. And what a perfect way for it to end the same way it was the whole time. So on brand, Nick Siriani racing to A.J. Brown on the sideline, you know, right before halftime, because he wanted A.J. Brown to get off the field because they were about to punt. And I guess Brown was moving slowly and Brown, you know, getting back in his face. And it's just always something. And I know it's sports.

And A.J. Brown had a rough game. He had a drop in the first half, too. And it was very windy there. And I think that really affected the passing game, especially the deep passing game. There was a deep shot that Jalen Hurts is usually great on that you could tell. got taken. But AJ Brown had two drops, and you have to wonder if this is going to be it for him. Here's Nick Siriani talking about his relationship with his receiver after the game. I love AJ. I think he knows how I feel about him. I have a special relationship with him. We've probably went through every emotion you can possibly have together. We've laughed together. We've cried together. We've yelled at each other. We're both emotional. I was trying to get him off the field.

And, you know, you never want, you know, that happens in this game. That happens in this game. And, but I love them. Um, I get it, but. No, I don't. I don't. Because here's the thing. Control your emotions.

There's no, there's nothing good about you running down and telling you, what are your best players to get off the field because you're frustrated. Keep it control. And he said like, we're both. Two Super Bowls. And he's like, hey, we're both emotional guys. But it's like, yeah, but that's, that's your right receiver. You're the coach.

Yeah. Invest that energy elsewhere. in terms of decision making and coaching and being on the sideline, why is that energy not being invested elsewhere other than sprinting down the field to get AJ Brown when there's other folks that need to get off the field at the same time too. Yeah, I like the yelling at AJ thing is is more of a symptom.

The things that really bother me more is the timeout, which you mentioned, the give up plays. There was a second and 19 run. I'm so sick of the Eagles with these like second and 19 runs that go nowhere. There was also a third and 13 Jalen Hertz quarterback run. I believe that might have set up that field goal to go up 16 to 10. It's like it's almost not even trying. And that happens all the time.

And then it's just the continuous second half anti-adjustments where they just have these stretches every single week where in this drive, in this game, you know, if you go back to the last drive of the second. quarter. It was a five drive sequence where they gained a total of 49 yards. And it just happens, it happens every week. And you mentioned, Chuck, if he's the coach, I have never witnessed a spicier moment in, in the coaching carousel than we're in right now. Eight coaches available. Eight coaches available. And why I think it's spicy is just the uncertainty. where we are today.

Because we don't know what Harbaugh is going to do, right? But we don't know what's going to happen with Matt Lafleur. He met with the media on Sunday. He says he's going to meet with, you know, team president, Ed Policy. Adam Schaefter pointedly did a whole, you know, quote unquote report on Sunday morning that basically was what we talked about on Thursday on our show that, hey, you know, Bob Harlan's son happens to represent John Harbaugh, and wouldn't it be interesting? You know, John Harbaugh lives in the Northwest, and that would be interesting if maybe he would,

like, that would be a job that he would really like the Packers. Okay. Yeah, me too. It's nice to want things. Yeah, but Adam Schaefter isn't just throwing it out there willy-nilly. It's for a purpose. It's either to put some heat. For whose purpose?

Well, for John Harba to make more money. But maybe for John Harbaugh to get that job, you know, either to create leverage. But it's interesting. The Lefer thing is having to make. hanging out there. The dolphins are in this whole mix. Could the Eagles possibly get in this mix? Like, it's almost a game of chicken. I don't think the Packers would want Matt LaFleur to get out there if they thought maybe he would end up in Philadelphia or maybe, you know, maybe, you know, it's a whole triangle. And do you think that the Eagles could get in the mix here? Because,

you know, John Harbaugh, people might not remember, like, he came up in the Philadelphia system. them. It's just a lot. It's spicy. I wouldn't be surprised if phone calls have already been made from somebody's limo. Well, they were home. So, well, maybe still taking a limo. Car service home from the game from Lincoln Financial Field to kick the tires on some potential candidates out there. I thought you were going to pivot toward what happened if Nick Sieriani got fired and just threw a powder tag into the whole coaching carous. Well, I am. I'm saying like, what if he gets fired and they bring in Harbaugh or something? Or they go for LaFleur. I'm thinking about him getting a head coaching job somewhere else and blowing that up. But that would be fun too.

How about this though? I think that we deserve this uncertainty and potential chaos scenario because what did we talk about with this coaching carous all this whole off season? Oh, I don't know. Do you make the fight? Do you get rid of the coach because the candidates out there aren't too strong? Well, suddenly we might be chock full of big time candidates and it could get really interesting. I wanted to get super spicy.

I would like an agent to tell somebody to tell an insider that an agent's going to prevent somebody from getting a job as opposed to saying, oh, well, agents who definitely have value provided to their customers are helping somebody get a job that they maybe shouldn't, but because the agent is under contract, then that's why you should hire this person. Well, you know, I do think the agents sometimes use the media to make their clients more money from aging businessmen who's whole life hasn't been football. maybe aren't the best at evaluating the right things who to give all their money to and why to give all their money. That they actually really listen to these reports. That does have some function.

So instead of just telling them themselves. I don't know. They tell somebody else to tell everybody by way of telling. I think there are ownership who value like what Schefter and Rapaport and everyone's saying more than the people inside their own building.

I know of the agent connection between somebody who's a higher up at a few organizations, getting a few lower level coaches hired. This is definitely a real thing. Definitely a real thing. So I mean, you guys are right. There's no other way to explain the fact that your proud Baltimore Ravens like weren't ashamed enough to not send out the tweet that said Matt Nagy interviewed Friday. Why is Matt Nagy getting five interviews? It has to be, he's got to have a great age. Like what is happening? Yeah. I just think it's the yes the thing is happening should the thing be happening well is is a is a part of it and i just you know that's a good thing to point out i would i would like to know i'd like to know all of the wise

all the wise i mean that that is a great question for this entire uh eagle season all the wise there i everyone was kind of holding out hope this whole time like maybe they just press the button and like it we just would see playoff play you know jaylin yeah in a different game. Like, they could have escaped this game, but this is a nineers team that hasn't been able to rush the passer. Yeah. For 10 weeks.

Yeah. This is a nasty loss. Like, there's something that has to change. It's a good point. They had, I think, like, one of the lowest success rates of the entire season for the Eagles. And it happened against this lower tier defense. And yeah, you mentioned Seekwon.

He had four for 65 on that first drive, first touchdown drive. They always look good at the beginning. In the next 22 carries he had in this game, he gained a total of 41 yards. And it felt like every other snap in the fourth quarter was like a run for negative three. Man, what a wildcard weekend. And it's not over yet. You know, as Tony Romo would say, oh, here we go, Jim. But now it's like sentient Romo.

Did you notice the thing today? I don't know if you were locked in. And like he was like too self-aware because he was about to say that in the right moment of the game for the Jaguars. But then he sort of said it in a voice that was like making fun of Tony Romo while Tony Romo was saying it.

Like he was audibleing on the fly because he knows everyone makes fun of him for it. And that Tony Romo kind of makes me even sadder. You know what I mean? It's all sad. He's done it a few times late and close games of the season where he does it like, I'm leaning on my catchphrase.

So instead of being like, here we go with full exuberance, She's like, here we go. Oh, that's not that. We need the full Tony experience. Bring him back. I'm excited. And look, I've been picking a Rams Seahawks NFC championship game all year,

saying that they're the best two teams. And it was looking for a while, like that was impossible. We were going to get that as a divisional round game. But no, now that the 49ers pulled off this upset, it'll be the 49. going back to Seattle and, yeah, the Rams will be in Chicago. We will finish the AFC field on Monday night.

A treat on Sunday night here with my friends Patrick and Nick. My only two friends in the world for this 80 minutes. But no, there's other great people in my life, I promise, other than football. Please, I've been waiting for that music to hit. Eric likes to hang me out to drive. Why do you that? He's not doing it as a friend. He's already playing mind games.

head of Bill's Patriots, potentially. I don't know if the Patriots are going to get there. We'll find out if the Texans are going to Foxborough. Monday night live on YouTube for the last time on a Monday night all season. See you then. What's up? It's Cam Jordan. I'm back with season three of your favorite podcast,

The Off the Edge with Cam Jordan podcast. Tap in every Wednesday to hear conversations with my friends and stars for the NFL, the sports world in general and entertainment. About anything from teams and players making waves to pop culture. take you inside my journey through my 15th season in the NFL. Looking forward to you joining me this season, the season of more, on the Off the Edge with Cam Joined podcast. Catch new episodes every Wednesday on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

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