The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Bengals & Rams move on to Super Bowl LVI & can the 49ers & Chiefs make another run?

Episode Date: January 31, 2022

The magic continues for Joe Burrow and the Bengals as they edge the Chiefs in OT to head to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1988, and Sean McVay coaches the Rams to the Championship game for the 2nd time since 2018. Can his Matthew Stafford-led team get it done this time? There will be plenty of time to discuss Bengals-Rams, so before that, Robert Mays and Nate Tice dig into the AFC & NFC Championship results. Why did the Chiefs shy away from running the ball? Was this officially the last we will see of Jimmy G in San Francisco? And what made Tee Higgins and Cooper Kupp stand out so much for their teams? All that and more on a postgame edition of The Athletic Football Show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. Welcome to the athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays. Joining me tonight. It's my good friend Nate Tyson. How you doing, buddy? Doing great. We got the Andrew Whitworth Revenge game coming up.

I started my, I started, I was trying to think of any Bengals, Rams angle. It's a good one. Obviously the Zach Taylor thing. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, obviously that. I started my day with the Shrine Bowl. And no offense to the quarter of the game.

There's shout out Jackie Cohn, but watching the Shrine Bowl quarterbacks and then watching Joe Burrow, Patrick Mahomes, Stafford, and Jimmy G. Like, performed today. It was like, oh, yeah, there's a big threshold difference between like an average college arm and then like live. These guys. Yeah, big, big worlds of difference. I mean, what a day. Again, the fact that we had a set of games, a pair of games that went toe to toe with what we saw last week. I mean, obviously the Mahomes, Josh Allen game, just in terms of quality.

is on a whole different level. We'll get to that. But both these games going absolutely down to the wire. I am just exhausted. I'm emotionally exhausted after that day. I feel like we should do this tomorrow because I have to kind of sit back and really consider everything that just happened

over the last seven or so hours. But we're not going to do that. We're going to dig into this right now. We're going to start with the game that we just saw. The Rams are going to the Super Bowl. Their second Super Bowl, Sean McVease, relatively short tenure. This was a showcase for their superstar players, which we can get into.

But what a ride over that second half. McVeigh just throwing his challenges and his timeouts into the trash can. They were of no use to him. I was like, why? Guys, this entire performance, Rams did a lot of awesome things on offense today. So do the Niners. I mean, some of the ways they lined up guys and the easy George Kittal touchdown and some of the throws they gave Jimmy G.

We saw two very good offensive coaches going at it. But at the same time, every single moment where you want to get really excited about what they are as play designers and callers, the game management stuff is just a nightmare. And that's what it felt like over the second half, just these series of very questionable decisions that could have done either one of these teams in. Ultimately, the Rams end up winning this game. It's the girl in the slasher movie going back inside the house. Still go. The fourth down comes off. It's just like, oh, no, no, no, no.

You can hear the crowd. the the fourth and two into a we're punning into a challenge by McVeigh into a we're going to try to run draw you off sides where everybody knows that you're trying to draw off sides into a delay a game into a punt that was a that was a sequence right there it was a brutal sequence I mean there was that play the McVeigh was like that's my bad on it where they threw the little screen on third and short before kicking the field goal partial part of that was they ticked down to one second on the play clock again that entire drive they were struggling to get plays off and they had no timeouts left.

Even in that moment, you don't want to be burning timeouts to avoid delays of game in the fourth quarter. That fourth and two, you know, game management stuff is never my favorite thing to harp on. Because a lot of it, the reasoning behind it, maybe we can talk through it and you can understand why it happened. I thought that fourth and two decision by the Niners in the moment was a mistake. I tweeted it. They had the ball in the 40-yard line. They're up 17 to 14. it's not that you don't trust your defense, which even if you did trust your defense,

Matthew Stafford is playing extremely well in this game. I mean, this is an end zone interception away from potentially getting out of hand because of how well the Rams are moving the ball and how few answers the Niners had for those guys on the outside. Beside the point, though, that's a you have little faith in your offense decision. It's fourth and two. Do you know if Jimmy G's going to get that close again? You potentially, if you score a touchdown there, can maybe put this game away.

And I thought the decision to go punt that, I mean, obviously, in the next play, Jekwaski Tart could have intercepted that ball. But then one play later, they hit Beckham on a shot down the left sideline, 15 more, and the Rams are in range to score. So it's just, that's a frustrating decision. That, to me, is a decision rooted in fear and really came back to bite the Niners because their offense could not move the ball and did not get even close to that sort of range again in that game. And this is kind of what can happen when you put more into coaching and put more into star players is that you feel like you run out of ballplace.

When you don't truly trust your guys to and just harp on our own line is go get a bucket, that's what star players step up. Time and time again at NBA playoffs, you'll see these teams run great offenses throughout the season. And then also when actually the NBA players try for the entire game on defense for 48 minutes, it's like, oh man, we can't, all this cutting action is not working. So you need a guy that just goes and gets you to the line, goes and shoots a three, nice ball moving off of that. And that's what this feels like is that fourth and two decisions like, I don't know what we should run here because I don't, is it, our run game's not going great. This is when you build off the run and build with a quarterback that maybe is not that create a play type of guy. Oh, man, the one time he did, Jimmy did break the contain. He almost threw a pick right to Ramsey too.

Like it was you could. His last few drives. I mean, his last two drives were horrific. They were really bad. Yeah. And we'll get into that. But this is why you have not just a star quarterback playing like a star. That's what you're treating them like.

But also just the players like the defensive ends, the defensive tackles, your star corner, those guys step up too. So it's, man, we might not have the perfect play call, but those guys just overcome that and make it a, they're a booster for everybody else because they just take over games. And that's where you just felt the difference and all that is the feel that you can go aggressive when you need to go aggressive as opposed to like. The field that's like, I guess we're going here. I hope this is right, as opposed to we're taking it to them. It's just a mindset that you have when you trust your guy to do it. So Stafford, it comes up with some big throws in this game in big moments. I mean, that blitz-beater to cup on the slant on that final field goal drive is on the screws throw.

He had a bunch of them today. This is the one-year anniversary of the Stafford trade. A year ago today, they made that deal. I was sitting at my house the night before I was going to fly to the Super Bowl and saw, it came down and it seemed groundbreaking in the moment and this is it. This is why you do it. I mean, there are so many moments in that game where if they blitz, you're screwed because of what he can do against the blitz. If you don't blitz, he's banging those backside digs to Beckham and just those late in breakers where their throws available to him that aren't available to

anyone else. There are a couple bad plays. The pick in the end zone is mostly a great play by K.1 Williams. The dropped pick should have been a pick. Those are going to happen with him. That's just way that he's played this year, but you also have so much more on the table. Your passing game and the heights of it and the ceiling is so much higher. And when they needed it to be in this game, it absolutely was. Yeah, that touchdown to Cup in the fourth quarter or go, yeah, it was just the start of the fourth quarter. Like the whole setup for all that was so many times they run, I mean, both of these teams

run choice routes like crazy, especially I was stack and bunch of alignments. And Cups touchdown on that was just a playoff. It looked like a choice route. It looked like a choice route coming out of Banchch. It was third and short. I think third or one or two. Third and three. Third three.

Third three. Third. Shortish, mediumish. But third and three. It was third one. You're right. Third one. Okay.

Here comes a choice route. Okay. Here comes a choice route. Okay. Here comes a choice route. He's going to go in breaker outbreaker out breaker. You can see K. K.

William squaring up with cup. And then it's really basically a double move. Like it's because he's square up. It's like a stutter go inside fade or stutter inside fade. I was trying to figure out what to call it when it happened in the moment because it's, it's not an out and up because he barely went out. But it's it's almost like a choice route and up is what it is. Yeah. And that's really it's a choice breakdown and up. It was how to play actually end up playing out. Choice stutter. We'll call it that. Yeah. But that's and you can see K. Ron Williams going like, oh, here it comes. Cooper Cup. All right. I'm going to get them. And really when they did run the cup choice route on the next drive that third third down you were talking about where Stafford just roped one in and Cup had a great route. You can see him. He played that really well. It was in the,

and that was after getting beat on this route. It's basically a double move. And the whole setup for all that, you can see Cups short area quickness. And also on a third and one, not only just going, hey, we're just trying to get the first down,

but going, no, we're scoring on a third and one in the Reds. That's, that's fond when you're hitting those types of plays. And hitting, it's like, Cup is the man beater

and then OBJ is the zone beater. Like all we talked about it last week was, 40-9 is going to let you have the flat throws. They're going to let you have the flat throws. There was a reason Ambri Thomas led the 40-9ers and tackles today. It's because he had to run down all those routes on the outside of OBJ. He had to run and get another tackle. Not every day you see a corner leading the team with 13 tackles.

And that was just them, pepper OBJ on the outside. And any time they came, man, cut beating it every single time. Anytime they brought pressure, beaten it every single time. It was just, it was a clinic. It really was. So that third and one was a touchdown. It was a third and three on that choice rod that you're talking about against the blitz. great blitz pickup by Sony Michelle on that play, by the way.

Just sticking in there against 51, taking that shot right to the chops and allowing Stafford to get that ball. So that was third and three. On their first touchdown drive, third and six was a bunch with cup on the right side. It becomes a de facto one-on-one with him and Thomas. He gets right on his toes, breaks it to the corner, hits him,

and then on the corner route for the touchdown, another third and long. I was after that boasts sack. Niners play man on third down. So all of those plays, all of the biggest Cooper Cup completions of the game, all came on third down. This was, I said it before, it was a showcase for those guys. This was a reminder that he is truly one of the best players in the league and was all season. And his ability to take advantage of those guys on the outside.

And then in those moments where they needed Beckham, like you said, in kind of those zone type of situations, they just did such a great job of setting him up with de facto one-on-one. with the structure of how they were doing things. The one in the second half, it was like 11 minutes left to the third quarter, and they did such a great job. He hit the comeback on, I think, first or second down on the left sideline. And then on the next play, they hit him on a little skinny post. And the Niners did what they normally do,

where they drop that safety down. And that buzz safety sitting in the middle of the field. And Cup held him with an overrout that stopped. And then that gave Beckham a ton of space on the backside. So it's just a two-man game between. those two guys. And that's what it felt like for the Rams on offense today. Was those guys just being, it was one of those, our guys are better than your guys.

And we're going to put them in the right spots a decent amount of the time. But our guys are better than your guys. And then we're going to sprinkle in two tight end screens to Blanton. And that's going to be our offense. And that was enough today. It really was. I know when he just, sometimes football is so simple. And like having OBJ is, you know, they don't always line them up as that bad.

like an X receiver, that is an old school X usage, how they use them today. 100% agree. Vertical routes. And wow, we got, like you said, de facto one-on-ones. It might not be true, man, but sometimes it was. But, you know, quarters or the quarter or the coverage is pushed to. It plays out that way. I mean, it does.

There's so much space over there that it is Emmanuel Mosley on O'Dell Beckham in a ton of space. And that's a matchup that the Rams are going to take. And when, when quarterbacks are taught those concepts, especially three by one and now four-by-one concepts with the X. You read it, like you have your reads for certain coverages. Okay, cover two, you look at this. Two man, you look at this. Cover three, look at this. Man, you can go this. But then there's other other coverages where quarters, cover three sometimes, man, you go, it's called a gimmee throw. It's an advantage throw. And when you have a true X, and this is why I always harp on it. It's blended over the years now. But when you have a guy that can run a true X, because a lot of those

routes, they're the lone receiver over there. They are a split end. Flanker is the Z. That's how the old school labeling. It's a split end. He's on his own over there. They have to win on their own. Those are true one-on-ones. And it's not like they can move around because they're going to be on the ball. So a lot of those things, they have to have a vertical stem. And when you have a guy that can threaten vertically come back down and then create yards after the catch, old school X usage. And then you get like a cup, like a slot usage. Like it's just like an old school offense kind of coming back with this kind of how they're doing it. It's like a new tweak on it, which are just the usage of these kind of spots on the field.

But man, they just peppered them the whole game and why not? And then we got Kendall Blanton who got caught a comeback last week against the box, catching screens and taking them north. He had two screens on the same drive. And it was a really big huge plays on those. A flea flicker screen. I loved it. I think the Bengals ran out earlier this year.

And yeah, a little flea flicker screen out of nowhere. When they ran to flea flicker, I kind of groaned. I was like, oh, really, a flea flicker on a play out of a timeout. Nah, flea flicker screen. Yeah, subverting the trope there. And we forget, I mean, it was a close game by the end. But, I mean, there were some moments that the Rams left on the field. That drive where it was seven to seven after the Debo touchdown, which was just a nasty play by Debo.

Beautiful. It was seven to seven. On third and nine, they hit the late backside dig to Beckham, which of course they do. Then Cup drops the ball on first and ten. Oh, my God. It was almost shocking because it was just like, oh, my God, I can't believe he just did that. And then on second down, he was working against Williams and Maxxie. coverage again. And the first down

after that was the Scars Guard play. It was, the play was beautiful. It was beautiful. It was empty on first down. They had four receivers to the left side. And the route combinations the way they played out were gorgeous. When they were drawing up that play during the

week, that was exactly it. Like, we're going to get quarters in this situation. Yep. They're going to drive. The safety is going to have to drive down on this. You got it on the backside. You got it on the post. This is your play. Just lost him. You'll never see it coming. That was another play where they had it.

That was a touchdown that they dropped. Ebukom had a great ball rush on third down to set up that missed 54-yard field goal. He had some nice moments today. The whole Niners front did. But it ultimately wasn't enough. And you look at it, the Niners' offense just could not make enough plays in this game. And that starts, in my opinion, with the way the Rams played run defense. Yes.

This was just win. Niners have been able to run the ball. consistently in this matchup. Not 7, 8 yards a carry, but they've been able to move the ball pretty fluently 4, 5 yards to carry. Yes, very few negative plays, very few

second and tens, second and 11s. In this game, Niners average 2.5 yards per carry. Their success rate depending on where you look was like in the teens. 11% through Ben Baldwin's and the box scores in Ben Baldwin's site. When you look at those,

EPAs and stuff. I think next gen has a little bit different numbers than that based on what I saw from the Bengals game and stuff. Either way, not good. They could not consistently run the ball. And that play where the play that led to the fourth and two from Shanahan, they try to run that play where they put Treel Williams in motion and they give it to use check and it gets stuffed. And that was happening all day today. They could not establish anything on the ground. And I would love to see what the all 22 looks like on those last couple nineers drives throwing the ball. I mean, Jimmy was eating it.

There was nobody open and I have no idea what they were doing, but their passing game looked broken by the end too. Yep. The run game stuff was the why I've mentioned the name Troy Reader so many times is because the ball would get to him on run plays. And that means because they're not winning up front. And yeah, Troy Reader had some rough plays today. But today it was so much of the front winning that they get put a lot is up to them.

the Rams front, just how they play defense to win. No, no shit. Like that's the most obvious statement I've ever made. But like every defensive line ever, that's what they're taught to win. But more in that, they have to be disruptive because otherwise it's just one lone by one lone linebacker in the box. Especially on those toss split zone plays and toss outside plays, it's out the gate. If that guy misses a tackle, takes the wrong gap, it's onto the safeties at 10, 12 yards,

eight yards. You know, that's where the chunks were coming. And today it was, you know, it was Troy Reeder was on the outside plays, but those All those inside plays was you saw Earn Donald coming up. You saw Von Miller standing up, like as far as making the tackle, getting disruptive and all that. And we mentioned, again, last week, again, not like a grandiose statement, but that the 49ers plan was they had to be in third and manageable. They couldn't be in third and longs. And how they win, how they have to win, that run game just has to get going because they're not, yeah, they can run some quick game.

They can run some slant stuff. IUC is great on that stuff. Debo Samuel can only handle so many touches as much as we love them. it's diminishing returns. It's just, you know, it's hard to we create all these advantage touches, I should say, with him. So, like, I think those plays were just running out for them. And now they're getting go, oh, my God, it's second and 10. We can't run another screen.

We can't just do this. They weren't really putting them on the move. I felt like they were tight against that. I don't know, it just felt very tight for them because the run plays weren't popping. And that's just what the whole offense is based on. They did a great job of setting up those inbreakers to IUC throughout the first half and early in the game. and for whatever reason they just went away in the second half. Again, the Fox game is not great with the All-22 replays.

I mean, in the CBS game, you can pretty much get another look of what happens on the back end of almost every single play. The Fox replays are not even in that same zip code. And unlike Barnwell, I don't have access to all the dots on all the plays because I don't have a fancy next-gen login. So I don't know exactly what was going on in the back end of some of that, but they could not move the ball through the air on those last few drives when it mattered most. The best plays they had, this was last week too, actually. I mean, we forget they beat the Packers, but it wasn't like they were, you know, torching them. That was a defense and special teams game.

Yeah. Their offense did not carry them in that game. They barely made enough plays. You could argue they didn't make enough plays. And the only plays they were making were getting into heavy personnel, 22 personnel, and then running, going empty or running choice routes to Kittle. Yeah. And then their best play today was the touchdown on the sale route to Kittle because it was an

empty, 22 personnel set up from previous week's games that they're like, oh, we run choice routes. There was the same formation at everything. And they ran a deep route. They ran a deep concept with them, which kind of caught them. So that was kind of like a, yeah, nice change up. But then again, they run out of ball place. That's your designer stuff.

That's your, yeah, that bear score of freaking touchdown because we've been planning on this all week. Can't really run it again. You know, you could, but you don't really want to. And that's what it felt like. It was like, okay, well, play A is not working. Play B is not working. Well, play C was okay.

All right, we ran that three times. Okay, now we can't get back to play. See? No, okay, so what's our counter? And yeah, it just felt like the adjustments never came or those big plays they needed just never came on offense. And we'll, I think that brings us to where we want to go from here, which is what does the future look like for the Niners?

And then the Niners case, it's pretty obvious, right? They already have their future in place. It's such a rare circumstance where you have a team playing in the NFC championship game and you know their quarterback isn't going to be. there the year after. A team that's a couple plays away from the Super Bowl and you know their quarterback is probably going to be on another team. I can't remember a situation like that because it just doesn't really happen.

And we talked on the preview show about how this was the Niners plan. We kind of scoffed at it in the moment when they said, we're going to keep Jimmy and we believe we're a Super Bowl caliber team and then we'll potentially move on in the offseason. I was like, all right. And then they were right. I mean, they were a couple plays away from the Super Bowl, but ultimately. this is why that trade needed to happen. Today's game is why that trade needed to happen.

We can have all, we can spend as much wasted oxygen as we want, talking about Jimmy's record and EPA per play and everything else. Passer rating. You need better play at quarterback if you're going to play against the big boys in these sorts of moments. You need somebody who can make those types of, holy shit, what am I supposed to do about that type of throws? that Matthew Stafford did at points in this game. The Rams and Niners came to the same conclusion last offseason. He said, we need better play at the most important position in sports.

The Rams guy just happened to play this year, and the Niners guy didn't, and he's not a ready-made 33-year-old veteran. It's just a different timeline. But we saw the reason that the Rams made that decision this off-season. We also saw the reason that the Niners made that decision. They just went in opposite directions today. Yeah, it's not funny. And especially how their teams are built.

40 and I just have this weird blend of older talent and younger talent that they also have to, you know, especially align like Thomason's the free agent. Really curious about what those moves are going to look like and how they view that position group specifically. And what they want to do with it this off season. Because they kind of go for stopgapy and say we can maximize it with what we run. So that's other in Trent Williams, of course, which they backed up a brakes truck for it to sign. But the other guys. And I mean, Alex Mack was there kind of, I mean, we forget they had some center woes recently.

And Alex Mack was like, yeah, and who, I think, what is he, 35? I feel like. Yes. Yeah. And that's another year with him. He'll be 37 next year. Oh, man. And so that's.

I'm looking at their spot right. Or they're over the cap page right now. And that's a lot that they put a lot on the center because the quarterback doesn't handle the protection stuff. So you need center help there and how much they do with the gun and the timing stuff. So that answers there. I mean, I'm sure they wanted to have Alex Mac again. just because of what he can do mentally.

And Tomlinson and the whole right side, they can't go another year with Brunskill at right guard. They just can't. So that position is just a huge question mark. And then obviously corner, which we know, but they have another fun pieces. That's what's kind of cool about this team.

I mean, as far as skill position, as far as the interior of the defense, the spine of the defense, you know, so that's interesting there. But yeah, it is funny how it's like they had ready made teams

with different quarterbacks and waiting. But yeah, one was just like, oh yeah, here we go. Ready to go. One you got to break out of the package. this year and you got to see the returns out of the other one's a little bit more of a long-term

investment you look at it like a beanie baby so so if you look at the guys who're hitting free agency for them next year jquoski tar is going to hit free jquash guitar is going to be 30 that seems impossible that he's been in the league for that long k1 williams is going to be 31 so those guys are both hitting free agency and tomlinson's deal is he has some bonus money left but he's also going to be a free agent. So, I mean, you have all these guys that were starters for them. Not necessarily the most important pieces on the team, but they have some decisions to make. They also could potentially have like $35, $40 million in cap space, depending on how it happens, because they're going to move on from Jimmy. He has no dead money left. So they still have,

if you look at it, a really promising core players, obviously, right? The most important guys are going to be back. You got your trents and your kiddles and your debos and Brandon Ayuku. I think it's looked really good. I mean, he's a really talented player. He's a little bit far down the pecking order of the most important guys on their offense. But having him as your number three de facto pass catcher with those other two guys is pretty good. The one area where I would want to see them just drop it in as a little ingredient for their offense. This is a little bit further down the road.

But they need more speed. Yeah. They just, everything becomes so compact and so tight in there because they don't have some, that can create space. George Kittle is their space creator because they run him down the middle of the field so they can create high lows with the safeties run out. But he's the guy that takes the top off the defense. It's admirable.

It's impressive that he can do that considering all the other things that he does. I think that they need that juice, that vertical juice to their offense that they just do not have with this current group. But that's a conversation for March. And I'm sure the next, Tray Lance will let you see with that. vertical juice looks like. Yes. Yes. So, so maybe, maybe IUC has that in them, you know, so that's, that's the other thing. So, but no, I get what you mean. And I, I've stolen this line from Shanahan because I just love it how he looks at his basketball room or his receiver

room that he likes to look like a basketball lineup. And that's kind of like, I don't know what you want to say. They're small forward that they need, you know, as far as the receiving talent, their power forward that can go. That's a vertical threat. Yeah, they kind of need that kind of ball wintry vertical guy. Yeah, I don't know how to describe it. But yeah, I completely agree with And also, you know, Eli, like having the old line kind of, I'm going to guess take a half step back. That's why you get a guy like Trey Lance because his ability to create and his ability to the line doesn't have to be perfect. That's why it's the sliding scale. The better the quarterback or at least the more the quarterback can create, the less everybody else can have to be.

I mean, just has Joe Burrow and the Bengals O line. I mean, but that's the exact same thing. It helps it all look better. And McGlens, he'll be back next year, obviously. He missed the second half of the season because he was injured. and so hopefully the right side overall looks better. But this is a team that's well positioned. And they don't have early draft.

I think that's a much space. Yeah, I mean, the Jimmy thing is a huge part of it. And they've beat some of these guys, but they don't have that many monster contracts on the books. Their biggest cap hit in 2022 is Armstead at $20 million. This is what a rookie quarterback gives you. I mean, that's the whole benefit of resetting that financial clock by drafting somebody and moving on from Garapolo is that it changes. is the complexion of how you can spend

and what the rest of the roster looks like. So one more thing just to kind of put a pin in what this means for the Rams. We've had this conversation in different forms over the last week or so, two weeks as they've gotten to this point. This is it. This is it. This is why you made every single one of those moves was to get to this point.

Those picks for Stafford was for this game. Beckham coming here was can we create one more matchup advantage in a game like this and the answer was yes. Von Miller didn't destroy this game, but he's going to be huge against that Bengals offensive line in the playoffs or in the Super Bowl. So, I mean, this is the moment that you did all of this.

And I almost think that it led to a set of emotional decision making from McVeigh in some of these instances. It's like, oh, we're so close. Like it feels like they're feeling it in a way that's not necessarily beneficial to them in some of these moments. but whatever challenge calls man like it was he it was like he was like he was like he was like he's like he's like I think he was so geeked up that he's like I have to do something I'm throwing this flag like he just that's how it felt I have to do something I have that's I we'll see what happens if that takes hold

in the most important game of the year when they're playing in the Super Bowl but yeah they got here this team has a ton of talent they rode that talent and that's all that's all it mattered I mean they have their big spots and the Niners picked on Darius Williams in coverage a little bit, and we know that Troy Reeder's going to have his slip-ups, but this team still has a ton of star power, a quarterback that has elevated this unit in exactly the way that they needed, and now they're about to play for a championship. And they got Scars Guard. I mean, that's that that's most importantly.

But no, I, this is exactly it. This is their vision. This is their path. We talk about paths of the team. And some teams like the 40-N-Ires, they felt like they had a Super Bowl roster or near it. But then it's like, okay, well, our other path is we're going to move on to trade. Lance. Okay, with the Rams, it's like, this is the path.

Like, this is what their goal was. I mean, it's everyone's goal, but this is their primary, secondary to Tyreterrey. Did I say that right? Their third goal. Their fourth goal. Tertiary would be third. Terseery. Thank you.

Thank you. My sister, again, was the English major. I got you, buddy. I got you to figure that out. I used to be a writer. So I used to have to know. I know. It's like, it's like we, it's our yin and yang.

It actually works out sometimes. There's some through lines with these teams that feel like a pretty interesting. If you look at the way they're constructed and what you mean. need to get to this point. I like looking at the final four teams and seeing what lessons we can learn. I think we're going to do a show about that later in the week, so I don't want to get too deep in the weeds on that. But as I'm thinking, I don't want to get, and again, I don't want to get all the way to

the Super Bowl matchup either because there's so much time between now and then. But just what Cooper Cup is for this team in these moments, that's going to stick with me from this game. It's just how you need a guy like that to be a matchup eraser in these instances. It's third and three. We need it. It's the wide receiver version of needing a buck. bucket that that exactly what Cooper Cup was for this team today.

It's man versus man, you know, mono e mono and he's winning every single time. Yep, that's exactly it. He's going to get a bucket every single third down. All right. Let's get to the AFC championship game here. My first thought is, holy shit, they did it. They did it. I mean, holy shit, they did it.

When it gets to 21 to 3, think, all right, this is slipping away. They just don't have an answer for them on defense. And there's nothing wrong with that because there is no good answer. The Rams, excuse me, the Chiefs were running the ball at will over the course of that first half. I mean, seven, eight yards every first down. Their success rate, even over the course of the game was extremely high. I was like in the 80%. And it happened in the first half.

So they're running the ball at will. Holmes is taking what's there. They got that one shot down the field. There was no good plan. At least it seemed like there wasn't a good plan. And then we'll dig into the nitty. gritty of what the bangles were doing on defense, but they find something that starts working for them.

And Joe Burrow, I mean, just magician stuff. So many moments where dead to rights should never be able to squeak out of it somehow does. I thought that if the Bengals were going to be able to win this game, it was going to require three, four chunk chase gains, similar to the formula that kept them in the game in week 17. That's not what happened. And they were still able to keep themselves in it because their defense played a remarkable game. The way they played in the second half from game plan to individual performances, just the overall kind of cohesion across the board and the way they were playing off of each other. And one of the best defensive performances that you'll

ever see, I think Shield just tweeted it out. Mahomes's second worst EPA. per play in the second half of a game since he got to Kansas City. And again, I say this all the time. That's what it felt like because the first half was chiefs were doing exactly kind of what I thought they might be able to do, run the ball when they wanted, get to these new runs that they're throwing in there. And then also hitting some chunk plays and Mahomes is being patient and hitting underneath, but then doing the little half scrambles and hitting over the top.

And it was just kind of, okay, you know, you know, now they're going to be able to be relentless. You know, great, great year. Admiral performance. Good for you guys. Joe Burroughs a superstar, you'll be back next year. Yep, it was like, okay, this is exciting. Now you guys can just add some pieces up front, keep adding to the defense,

and you guys got a nice little core here. But then that second half adjustments that the Bengals made, I mean, coaches and then the players also just taking it advantage. That's, this is the back and forth coaches always have, is you have to put your players in position to succeed. And then also it's players have to make the plays. And this is the Bengals, though, players and coaches kind of, this is the performance.

They put them in a position to succeed. And every time a player had to step up, they stepped up. It wasn't a tip ball. It was an interception. It wasn't Hendrickson having a one-on-one against Orlando Brown and like, you know, putting some pressure on it was getting a straight sack in a quick sack before. Because Hubbard was getting some pressure from the other side and Mahomes had nowhere to go. And that's the one-on-one that they had a couple different guys that needed to do what they needed to do.

Stepping up. And that's a defense more than anything. It's a team game as it is just football, but especially defense. And that's what you need. You need different guys stepping up and you need everyone else kind of working cohesively. And all those types of plays just kind of added up, added up, added up. So they adjusted.

And Burrow threw for 250 yards and ran for 25. Those 25 yards he rushed for were more important than any yard he's gained through the year this entire season. It was cool seeing the light bulb go off for him. Because at first he was trying to win for the pocket, he threw like a go ball to T. Higgins back shoulder against two men, which is like, you're not. Yeah, I mean, that's that's kind of a heat check for a quarterback. That's like I've seen Rogers do that. Like a couple other guys, that was kind of a heat check and he sales it because it was just a tough throw.

It wasn't even a back shoulder throw either. He was trying to beat him over the time. He was trying to beat him over the top. I know. Yeah, that was a heat check. But after that, he was like, okay, screw this. They're running two men against me. All right, screw you.

He would just, he started scrambling as soon as his drop finished. He just finished his drop. He was like, all right, you guys have your back turn later. And he just get these yards. And also on top of that, like you said, the magician act, he really, it really felt like, Romo a little bit, like how he just bounced. That was the comparison I've made about him in the past. I feel very good about that comparison.

All things. Bouncing off the guys. Yeah, he steps up so hard just like Romo used to. Romo always had the exaggerated movements. And Burrow does the same thing. And then he's so big. And he just bounces off those guys. And then I mean, Chris Jones had a play where I think where he had two,

like one clean sack opportunity. And then almost could have tripped him up. And that's where Burroughs is at the lead. That was the play of the game. I mean, that was the play of the game. It was third and seven when it was top. at 21 in the fourth quarter. Huge time.

And he got away from him twice, twice. He had two scrambles on that drive that were incredible. And then on the third and long, he had another one on that drive. I mean, so many moments today. So many moments today where he makes those plays happen. I mean, there was a sneak came off the edge when the chiefs brought five on their second drive of the game where they kicked a field goal and he gets away and hits chase for like a nice chunk gain.

They brought five on their first touchdown drive in the first half when the P. Ryan screen earlier on that drive, Ingram and Bolton both dropped and they came off the left edge. And then he also escaped to his right on that play because he slid the protection the right way. I mean, these quiet little moments from him and those scrambles define the game. But the other thing that did is that Bengals' defensive game plan. Let's break it down. So let's just talk about what changes they made in the second half.

NextGen tweeted it out. We'll dig into some of the specifics of it. But just the numbers on the whole. They dropped eight on 35% of plays in this game. 45% of their plays in the second half. They dropped eight guys. 45% on those plays in this game. Mahomes was 7 of 13 for 59 yards.

He took two sacks and threw an interception. It changed the game. Them doing that changed the game. But it was the way they did it. Sometimes when guys drop eight and you're playing soft zone when you drop eight and the guy is all day, it's a terrible idea. They weren't doing that. They were dropping eight and they were playing man coverage with multiple robbers. So they're being aggressive while giving themselves help in those moments.

And one of the coolest parts is the robbers were coming from different places. Yep. So Mahomes didn't know who was going to be in man coverage and who wasn't. One play, they dropped bates down. One play they dropped bell down. One play they'd slam Hilton back and have him as one of the robbers. It was such a creative way to make him make tight throws against man coverage while also not leaving yourself vulnerable and creating confusion. Doing all of those things at the same time is almost impossible, but they managed to do it with this exact game plan.

I think the Bengals heard or realized, I think the NFL got on the refs after the last game, the week 17 game, go, hey, they're going to swallow their whistles. And after the first half, because the Chiefs got away with some in the first half. Oh, yeah. That field goal that the Bengals had to kick, that was a pass interference on Higgins from Fent. Oh, yeah, grab us off. And it was a 50-50 call with Ward on the other side with Chase. Yeah. But they were getting away with it. And the first drive of the second half for the Chiefs, that was that Hilton tug.

They were just playing normal cover one robber in some of those third downs, but they were being really physical and it benefited them. It did. And I mean, you feel like it's like leaning into the punch. Oh, we're going to press. You know, Tyreek and we're going to press. You can press, you know, Kelsey a little bit just on the routes that he is asked to run. Like that disrupts what he does. But it really does affect his production if you look at the numbers on it.

It really does. He does. I mean, it's not fun. You get your every time you're about, okay, I'm going to get a nice passplay. I'm taking one to the chops. And then there's another guy over the top helping. But Tyreek is usually playing with fire. It's because you miss your press.

You're, you're torched. Like he's going way past you because he's so fast. but it's a twofold thing. Their routes aren't as vertical. That's what they, they're expecting more stuff to be underneath. So their routes are a lot shorter. They're running the high lows that we have talked about before.

They're running four by one high lows early. That's quick. It's essentially quick game. So, okay, so they're playing physical with them. We don't have to worry about getting beat over the top. And on top of it,

we're basically putting a, you know, a bracket on them. Because now if you want to go in and out, it's almost a triple team because you're playing man coverage on them. You have a robber in the middle of the field. And then you have a post safety in the deep, in the deepest part of the field.

I mean, 25 yards deep at some points. That sack, that long sack that Mahomes took, the post safety on that play, I think it was Jesse Bates, was legitimately 25 yards deep. When you look at the dots, it's wild where they were lined up on that play. The coaches films are going to be hilarious

because they have to show all 22, so it just keeps zooming, you know, panning out, panning out. But with dropping eight, you usually see drop Awa, a really good time. Again, like leaning into the punch. And like you said,

they're running man, the robber variations, but also usually you'll see almost a Tampa 2 extra with that coverage on third short because a lot of offenses were on quick game on third and short. I told you the Rams. They ran the double move essentially the cup. That was,

it's essentially quick game. Choice comes out very quickly. So you just put arms in the lane. It's like running a two three zone in basketball. You're just putting as many arms in the lane, clog it up. Hey, man, we just ran this past concept 100 times because we're only.

only expecting seven guys in coverage, not eight, that just really changes the numbers. And the fact that they got two sacks, by the way, only rushing three is actually saying something in itself. But that's a leaning into the punch kind of way for defenses to stop quick game. And what RPO's are, and we, Mahomes had some bad plays on the RPO's. I mean, it was the Hill Interception. The Hill Interception was with eight, man, they dropped eight. And the guy can, so, okay, this is what I'm going to say with.

So RPO's. So RPO's is still, I only know a couple from my experiences, that. I like. I think sometimes I've got on a rant about this on my Twitch stream. So I, uh, but I kind of think they've been bastardized about how what's getting read, like where the advantage lies with these RPO. So I think sometimes there's a run look that they're like, oh, we're reading this linebacker. It's like, yeah, but you're blocking him anyways. That's not the guy in conflict. You know, so I think the rules have gotten warped over the years, just how these plays are in. On that RPO, okay, what's the pass option in RPO? Quick game. It's usually double slants. It's

double stick. That's what the Chiefs ran there. He was a three yard gain. It was a three yard gain. It was just such a low ceiling play when they're crushing you on the ground. Just hand the ball off. More frustrating is they got seven yards on a run play at the play before. It was second and three.

And that's the thing. RPO's this is, I've, we've commended the bills for understanding this is they kind of told Josh Allen, hey, yes, we understand that's a pass lock, just hand it off. Or they just run straight run plays.

They would get into 21 with Gilliam and just run straight run plays. There were glances, where you're looking to hit a 20-yard chunk instead of just throwing stick on first down when we have an 83% success for you running the ball. And it was so frustrating. So frustrating. Everyone could feel it. And so you're taking away. It makes you tighter because it just for no reason. It's one more decision to put on your quarterback's plate when your offense isn't functioning the way that you wanted to.

And I think it just one more thing that can be creaky. And that's what it felt like in the second half. The Hill Interception, by the way, Hendrickson was in position. get a hand on that ball, even if he didn't tip it because of how good the call was. And dropping, I mean, that was, that changed the game, that that play was swung the game. Because right after that happened, they hit the fade ball to chase for the touchdown. They're picking on Sorensen on that drive. Just picking on him in the goal, near the goal line.

The Taylor 2 point is just, his head is spinning. He goes in motion. They did a great job there. So I was just really frustrated at how, they just didn't run. the ball enough. And people say that all the time, but when you're ripping off, they average 5.8 yards per carry in this game. And they're destroying you on first down.

Where the Bengals could not run the ball on first down, which we can get to, the chiefs were ripping off whatever they wanted. And it was just, I mean, I'd have to look at the specific plays. You know, there were some second and third and shorts, some third ones where balls fell incomplete. Just run the ball. They cannot stop you running the ball. The other part of the drop eight.

that I think is worth mentioning is they did a lot of it in dime personnel because they were playing man coverage. Trey Flowers was in the game. And he did a really good job on Kelsey. It was just that kind of unique body type where we're dropping you in for this one specific reason. And we need you to muscle this guy up in these specific situations. And it was working really well. Yep. And that's what they did last time.

But this time, yeah, it was cool. It was a continuation of their first game. That's what was really fun about this game. It was like callbacks. It was what George Lucas wanted the prequels to be kind of thing. Like they actually made sense, like the poem that he was trying to do. But also just it's weird seeing a guy like Mahomes. He'll have plays where he's trying to do too much.

That was his M.O. Coming out, Texas Tech. Oh, God, the last two sacks. It was, I mean, just the whole game, the whole second half was him just trying to do too much, which it happens. Like a lot of these quarterbacks are, they have this in up. They're gamers. but it was like at the point where it was like just don't even let him throw it like just just like take the ball out of his hand and I'm not knocking my homes I mean he's the best of the best but it's just time after time the interception to BJ Hill he should just burn it anyways anyways because the O lines upfield anyways so it was they are they also were they were several guys that were three or four yards down field when he threw that ball so right then and there we already know he's trying to do too much because he's who runs RPO's more than anyone freaking chiefs so he should know what what these rules are. So that's again, right then and there at the end of the half.

I, I'm pretty sure that I'm, you might have been kidding, just trying to get one out of the, the refs, but he's trying to call time out when they didn't have a third time out, uh, when he throws it underneath the Tyreek Hill. Like so he doesn't have that. The ball has to go in the end zone. Five seconds. Five seconds is dicey. Anyways, I've, I've, I've been around where you round down there four seconds, which you usually say you can get a play off. But that's a perfect passplay. That's a fade or nothing. I don't like going for it. But. I'm going for it, but it's really, really, to come away with nothing in that situation is pretty brutal.

When it could have been a dagger. Like that, that could have just blew up the whole game and instead it gave the Bengals some life. A lot more, just a few more things I want to talk about the Bengals defense eventually, but just specifically about that drive, on second down, I almost didn't even write it down because I got whatever. Like, it's going to be 24 to 3. Congratulations. In completion on second down. Beautiful pass off on that second down on that final drive.

from the Chiefs at the end of the first half with Hilton and O'ousier out of a little bunch against man coverage. And they make Mahomes dirt it. And then on third down, they make the stop. And in the moment, it doesn't feel important. It's like, all right. Well, good job, guys. You're going to lose this game.

And ultimately, it ends up becoming a huge, huge play. Yeah. Yep. And it was a pick play designed to beat that coverage too, which makes even, that's so frustrating for an offense because I guarantee you they thought they could catch them there. Because that's exactly what it was. It was a pick play. It was a double double outbreaker, you know, rubber out.

And they, like you said, they passed it off perfectly. And again, that's what this Bengals defense is. The whole season, they don't do anything too fancy. They'd have some great tweaks on third down. Every week, they have some great game plan stuff. But they're just sound. And they just, they squeeze stuff. They pass stuff off, like you said, and they put their guys in the right spots.

Why we just talk about offense and defense, you know, taking advantage what these guys do or putting them in positions to win. And that's what the Bengals did. That's another instance of that saying, hey, they probably worked on it all week. And the chiefs love sprint out concepts and, I'm sorry, and a shovel concepts near the low red zone. So again, it's just they knew what the opponent was going to do and I got to have a kind of situation. And they stopped them. I mean, just kudos to them. The other talking about passing stuff off, that final pick is they're just running cover one with the robber.

The way they did it a lot in this game that they consistently were going to in those moments. if you watch the way the play actually unfolds, it's beautiful. So Hilton is on, or Hilton is on Hill in the slot. Say that 10 times. Hilton's on Hill in the slot. Not me. He's running that deep kind of over from number three that we've seen the chiefs run a million

times, a million times against single high coverages. They hit one earlier. So he's coming over and you see it just perfectly timed where Von Bell takes it. he takes the route from Hilton as they pass it off, and then Bates closes, which is excellent range like he has, and makes a gorgeous tip ball for Bell to intercept it, and for that to just swing the game.

And that looks like a great play from Jesse Bates. It is a great play from Jesse Bates, but it's also a perfect example of just the overall communication and teamwork that they had on the back end through that entire game to pass stuff off as smoothly as they were. all throughout the second half when they were doing that drop A type of look. It was a huge reason they won this game. It was one of the reasons they won this game.

Teamwork. I mean, that's what it is. It's cool because I have my convoluted Google Docs that way I keep throughout the week. And kind of saw right before I started my notes today, I saw the Bengals win if and the Chiefs win if from our Friday show. And on it, it's a lot of, oh, they get to the big plays on offense, either a chase catch and run.

They catch the Chiefs blitzing. The defense won on this game. And it's the offense played fine enough, but it was the defense won it. Defense Burroughs. That won them this game. That's what won the game. But that's kind of cool that they can win in a different way against the best of the best. It was, it felt like the Bengals were in control that entire second half.

It wasn't like, I can't believe we were in this. They were like, no, we're in it. Yeah, we know we're in it. And it was powerful. Did not flinch the entire second half. The chiefs flinched several times in which was just still startled about it. But yeah, the defense made that turnover to and they took advantage of it. Every time they had an opportunity,

they took advantage. That's what these teams do, and that's why they're in the Super Bowl. So a couple more things I wanted to note about the Bengals defense before we move on to T. Higgins, who is our surprisingly great player of the week. Logan Wilson made two plays on the final two plays on that Chiefs Drive at the end of regulation that will never show up in a stat sheet, but ultimately were a huge reason they won this game. On that scrambles and that long convoluted sack that Mahomes had where he scrambled to the left, Wilson picked up Byron Pringle coming or across the field. Again, picking up a guy as a robber or a whole player in these man looks,

carried him all the way across. Mahomes was looking for that exact guy and could not find him. Because how many times does he do it? All the time. All the time. And because that's exactly what the backbreaking play is going to look like. And Wilson latched onto it, stayed on the entire way to the sideline. And then on the final third down, when he took that sack, which is terrible sacks.

When he took that sack on that final third down, the play design on that play was Kelsey holding down and Pringle coming behind it. They were trying to high, low, specifically Logan Wilson in that, in that exact moment, he played it beautifully, split it exactly where he needed to be, took away the throw to Kelsey, made Mahomes not feel good about the throw to Pringle, even though he was jumping up and down, wanting the ball, and eats the sack and has to kick the field goal. So two plays from him, Hendrickson was the best pass rusher in this game. He had five pressures.

We talked about the sack that he had, like, another single sack. He beat Brown a couple times, and Mahomes got the ball out in the first half. Just a really good job mixing in his speed counters with those bull rushes that he does. That sack that he had on third and six, Brown was setting for that bull rush.

You need to worry about it. He's going to put his head in your chest. That's what he does. And he gave him the edge just a little bit, and Hendrickson got there. And Mike Hilton just did a great job passing stuff off. And we talked about the final play in the second down in the second half.

And those two guys, they're an encapsulation of what I was wrong about with the Bengals defense. You go get those guys in free agency. You pay sticker prices for them. How good can you actually be if that's how you construct your defense? The Bengals have outside of Jesse Bates, there are very, very few homegrown players that are difference makers on the Bengals defense. You know, Sam Hubbard's had some moments. Logan Wilson, we just talked about. Other than that, I mean, there are all.

All free agents. All of them. And this unit having real standout performances from some of these guys, but just the way they played collectively in the biggest moments in the biggest game of their season to take this team to the Super Bowl, hats off. I was fucking wrong. I was just wrong. I was wrong about what they would eventually look like. And getting to watch them in this game, happy to be wrong about it. Absolutely.

Watching excited, of course, about the offensive skill guys, but then seeing this defense, that's one of the favorite things I just love watching every week. It's just week after week finding these teams that are just well run, well coached or have great players. Okay, do the Bengals have the stars and stars? No, but they have fun players and smart players. And smart players are a lot of fun to watch because smart players are able to play fast. And even though the Bengals have this kind of group of mercenaries, this is. to sound really corny, but it just came to my brain.

Even though they have this group of mercenaries, they play like a little band of brothers. They really do. They really seem to like playing with each other too. When you hear everything that they've said, I mean, Reader just talking about how much he loves being there.

It really does feel like they have a vibe. We'll get to that as we close out this conversation. It's time for the State Farm, surprisingly great performance of the week, presented by State Farm. You were very right about T. Higgins, my friend. Congratulations. Take a bow.

Thank you. I hit, I did play one player prop this weekend. It was T. Higgins over, I think, 73 and a half yards. But yeah, that's exactly kind of what I thought his game would be. A lot of vertical routes, a lot of inbreakers. But it was kind of cool seeing how they use some changeups off of them, some outbreakers. And he's good at those too.

He gets those long legs going. They checked into passes to him. That's how you know he's kind of got the hot hand. But that's why this Bengals passing game is so incredible. Because it's two number ones. I mean, that's what T. Higgins is. It's however you rate them. That is a true X receiver.

It's such a cool combination of skill sets, too. The way they complement each other, they're just different enough. I love that when you have those two guys that are just, ah, it's like a ying and yang that just works perfectly together. It's the best. I know.

And even boy, he didn't working in the middle. It's like a perfect. Yeah, then the three of them. I mean, it's just like the complimentary skills sets are crazy. Yeah.

And the Higgins plays, I mean, those two in breakers, that's all cash radius. Yep. That's those long, long arms, be able to make those plays away from your body.

just becoming crucial in those moments. Yeah. And I thought it was going to be him just finding these spots against zone. But what you're saying right there, that's why Higgins is such a phenomenal player is he's a ball winner. He's a traditional ex ball winner. And they have two Xs because Chase is an X as well. And so they have two true Xs that can run the route tree, which is absolutely terrifying because they have a quarterback that's willing to put it on them, even if it's like, okay, that's man to man. He's tightly covered.

chasing him. And like you said that, Yen and Yang, they win in different ways, even though they're both ball winners. Like, chases this bully and Higgins is this graceful high pointer, like catching rebounds.

It's cool. It's like watching two different dunkers, you know? Yeah. The shooting guard doing windmills. And then you got, you know, Sean Kemp coming in and just throwing it down.

Like, you know, that's really what it feels like with these guys. But it's, it's really cool watching T. Higgins because having his game expand. Coming out of Clemson, he was,

Clemson's not going to run a lot of routes. So a lot of stuff was vertical and seeing him get some craftiness to his game, learning to tempo his stuff, coming out of those brakes, he's a lot cleaner now. And that's why he can get those yards after the catch because his brakes are cleaner. And it's just he's becoming this complete guy that's not just a ball winner, but a true, true number one type receiver.

Coming out of the half, they ran, it was first and 10, and they ran a play action pass on first and 10, where they had Higgins and Chase on the same side. And both of them made a B-line for the, the cover two safety made it make a choice and they hit a shot play to higgins as a result of it i think it was like a little corner out beautiful chunk played with their biggest past play they get day i would

assume their insistence on running the ball on first and ten for two yards in this game was so so maddening it almost cost them i mean the fact that they came out and say we're going to slam the ball into the into the line of scrimmage for two yards every single first and ten almost cost them if they do that next week, I think it's going to be a significant problem. Oh, yeah, because Von Miller and Aaron Donald, those aren't two-year games. Those are two-year losses. And they also, you have guys that I think all respect to Chris Jones and those guys, I think Joe Burroughs going to have a little bit of a harder time running away from Aaron Donald than Von Miller.

I've ever noticed Aaron Donald's like, because he gets no one more than he more than anyone gets in so clean on the quarterback does just the chest bump tackle. Have you ever noticed that? He just not, yeah, shoulders people over. It's hilarious. It's hilarious. It's no arms. It just like chest bumps them back.

It's pretty funny, actually. But honestly, watching this under center run game, I complimented earlier in the year, but now how siloed it is, as soon as they get under center, I watched this game with a reef, a reaissom from the athletic for Minnesota. And we're watching the game. And every time we went to center, I was like, oh, here comes a run. And he's like, oh, does there something that you know there? And just watch it. It's like, no, as soon as they go under center, you know it's going to be a run. Like it's just they only ran one play action, I think, from under center.

They had a great run play. That was a chunk play. It was a chunk play. It was a chunk play on a run. I don't know if it was a chunk play, but I think it was a first down run out of the gun because those are what those are tendency breakers. Because if you set up an entire season that you get under center like 75% of time, we're going to run the ball. Yeah, we're going to tee off on that. So maybe you can get something over the top.

But yeah, that's that's some frustration. So I'm trying out to let that ruin what the other stuff the bagels offense does. All right. Quick chiefs obituary here. How do you feel about Andy Reid after this game? It's like back to old Andy Reid. It's kind of what it feels like. I know that's an overreaction, but when you're supposed to win the Super Bowl,

when you're the best team, when you're a seven point favorite at home against a team that was middle of the pack for most of the season, and you have the best quarterback on the planet, these are the games you're supposed to win. It was frustrating to watch them on offense in the second half. it was. And this is, I mean, this is what until Mahomes got there, this was the Andy Reid M.O. Like this was, we, only a couple of years ago that it was the clock management stuff. He's famous. This is a totally different animal, but famous for the clock management stuff at the end of the Super Bowl against the Patriots when it was like he was just going huddle when he should be going hurry up.

Those types of things have always dogged him. He's always been heavy on the pass even sometimes when you shouldn't. And you love the aggressiveness. And of course, when the best player on the field is your quarterback, best player, the game's your quarterback. Yeah, you want to put the ball in his hands as much as possible. But sometimes it's, you kind of have to lean against those tendencies, I understand what the game, the field, the game is, the clock management, the, uh, what the defense is giving you, as opposed to, as you said before, running your head into the wall in a different way, but same exact thing. That's, it's, it's, they pass their head into a wall. And that's, and that's kind of what always been Andy Reid's MO. Mahomes has kind of, and winning the Super Bowl, of course,

always helps. And you kind of, you forget, you get a little grace period, but then you go back to yeah, this is what he's always been as a play caller and as a head coach. And especially he puts so much on him as just everything, the team and offense, that sometimes it pops, like something breaks. And especially in these tight moments when everyone's watching, it's just, it's just magnified. I don't think it has anything to do or it says anything about where they're going to go from here. They're going to be around next year. This team is going to be back.

And there are certain players. And Tyrone Matthew is getting a little bit older. What he does for their defense really allows them to do so many of the cover two disguises that they do. how flexible they are in the back end. Considerations like that are important. But it's a young offensive line with those two rookies. They'll be able to sustain that group. We'll see what happens with Orlando Brown.

They have a decision to make about paying him. I'm not looking at any of this. It's just rattling off the free agents from memory. But Orlando Brown is, that's good decision. You know the offensive line free agents. That's all I got. That's all I got.

You're looking at centers. That's why you're like bears centers. Who are all the free agent centers? You have them memorized for the bears. So Orlando Brown is going to, obviously that's going to be a decision that they have to make. but this is going to be a team that's relevant for a long time. And they're relevant because their quarterback is great.

This was not his best game. He did not play well. There's really no way around that. He did not play well in the second half. The Bengals had a fantastic defensive game plan. The play calling just again, started to get tight and get tight and he did not play well. The coach and the quarterback,

both of whom we have a lot of affection for and a lot of respect for, this was not their best day. And Mahomes is the best of the best. And that's why, even with that, first half. It's it's got to be four quarters. That's what NFL has that rubber band effect. It's that's what's so awesome about it is that it's 213 and it feels out of hand. And just like that, it's a ball game. And that's why the best players. One pick. It's one tip ball interception. And that's it. And if the other team has a quarterback, look at that right back in it. And that's what's so fun about

this league. And like you said, got nothing but respect for Mhoms and Andy Reid. So like honestly, I mean, my homes is my homes. It's nothing has changed about him. He's going to learn from this. I guarantee you he will. This happens. Sometimes you try to do too much. Sometimes a guy in a basketball game, a knockout game, like game seven goes four for 30. You know, that's what his performance was. He went four for four in the first half and then brick the next 20 in the second half.

That's what this was. This is the football equivalent of that. And when you put so much on your quarterback like the chiefs do, rightfully so because he's so good, that's what can happen. It kind of shoots you out of the game a little bit. And then the head coach is kind of getting caught with his hands tied a little bit, like kind of not, oh, shit. We're close again.

Like, you know, that can happen. That's the human element in this game. But again, as long as Patrick Mahomes is their quarterback, they're always going to be a contender. It's just, he's just too talented, too good. And it feels like we're trending in that direction with Cincinnati. And that's where I wanted to end this. Enjoy this, Chiefs fans. Or enjoy this, Bengals fans.

Enjoy it. And this is a fantastic moment. This is a team that, no secret, we were not high on coming into the year. I thought that their ceiling was a middle of the road team. because I thought their defense would cap out, maybe around like the 18th best unit in the league based on the lack of true difference makers they had. I thought that even if Burrow took a step,

they're a top 10-ish offense. And what does that make you? Nine and eight, you know, kind of right there in the middle. And they've broken through for a few different reasons. And this team feels like it's got something. And I think a huge reason that it feels like it's got something is their quarterback feels like he's got something. I don't know what it is.

It just sometimes there are those guys and he has it. And he couples it with coming up big in these moments, right? It's not just that feeling. It's him coming through with AFC championship games on the line. It's him not flinching when everything is at stake. And that's what he was throughout the postseason. It wasn't always pretty. They scored 19 points to beat the Titans.

They've gotten by the skin of their teeth. They didn't blow out the Raiders. This has been a rough, rough road, and they have gotten through it. And it's cool to watch. It's cool to watch him kind of take his place among the young quarterbacks in the league, among the players in the league. And we'll see what happens in two weeks. I didn't think they'd get this far.

So we have a lot of time to talk about that game. But, I mean, decades of sitting there wishing for moments like this is a fan base. You look at the party going on in the AFC North with the Ravens and the Steelers, constantly in the playoffs, constantly getting to these stages, winning championships, being the model franchises in the league. And you lose enough games one time. And even if not everything about the organization changes, you stumble into the number one pick in a year where there is a special player available with the number one pick. and it starts to change the entire complexion of who you are as a franchise. Yeah. Ask,

uh, ask LSU what's happened since Joe girls left. I mean, that's what a star QV does, man. And it's cool that the star QB is a star QB because that's what he is. He's a star. It's not just like he's good.

In every way. And every way. Yeah. I know. Right. Personality. Everything. He feels like it.

And, but it's cool that they can win these games in other ways. Yeah. And that's, and that's when you deserve to go to the Super Bowl is when you win with, when you pivot, when you go down a different path, whatever idiom, whatever stupid one I've used on this show, and that's what the Bengals have done.

And they find a way to win. As corny as that adage is, that is true, though. They're finding different ways to win. At this stage, that's all the matters. You just need to win each game. And he got them to this point. And you're happy. Joe Burroughs, the back half of their season,

when they started opening it up and they were throwing the ball 65% of the time and they let Joe Burrow be the most important player on the field. He carried them, him and Jamar Chase, to the post season. They made the playoffs because of that change that they made and because of Joe Burrow playing like an all-pro. I had him as my second team, all-pro quarterback. I said after that game, they played, I think, against the Ravens.

I said he's playing like a top five quarterback. And it seemed a little bit crazy in that moment. And it's not. I mean, he is that good. He got them to the postseason. And then their defense has come through in the last two weeks to keep them going throughout the postseason. The second half of the game against a 49ers,

was when I think the light bulb went off for a row. Not that light bulb went off. He's always kind of had that. But when he went, all right, I got this frickin receiver. I got two receivers. Let's go.

Let's go. Which is, hey, one-on-ones, yeah, it's an advantage. It's not, oh,

you know, the reeds not really taking me there. No, it's, let's just take it. Let's just go. And it works. And then I think he was like,

oh, that was easy. All right, let's just keep doing a little bit of that. It's not as when I have to throw perfect out of empty every single time. They found a formula that works for them. They run like nice standard NFL concepts that work. And he's so quick with reading it that they maximize everything.

Everything they run is maximized by this quarterback. And then also have the star receiving talent to then maximize the yards after the catch, maximize the 50-50 opportunities. And when you have that, it's awesome. It's like you said, you get lucked into it. Sometimes you find the right guy. But it makes the whole franchise seem great. When you have this guy just doing shit like this,

play in play out and you never feel out of a game when you have a quarterback like this and they weren't at any time. And they weren't. And they weren't. And they weren't. I actually thought we're going to have that 49ers bangles rematch for a split second. And I was just kind of cracking up because it felt like that game was a big launching point in two ways for their teams. And it was like, oh my God.

Then they fully circle back. But we got the Rams, which would be fun as well. It will be awesome. It will be very fun. The Bengals are in the Super Bowl. The Bengals went on the road, beat the chiefs at Arrowhead our play. playing in the Super Bowl, and they will play against the team that the Bengals were not planning for this from the start.

At least we weren't. Nobody was picking the Bengals to do this. A lot of people were picking the Rams. The Rams entire off season was pointing to this moment. The Bengals wasn't, but guess what? Here they are. And we got two weeks until that game happens. We'll have a lot of time to talk about it.

Guys, thank you very, very much for joining us tonight. Hell of a season. We got one more game to go. This was a fantastic way to cap it all. off. I mean, it was going to be hard to top last weekend, and this gave it a run for its money. Please, if you enjoy listening to the show this year, go leave us a review on Apple. Go give us some stars on Spotify. We really appreciate that. It's only if you liked it. If you didn't, don't worry about doing that. Please subscribe to the athletic. Go read Paul Deener today. Go read Jordan Roderick today. No better place to get a feel for what these moments were like. If you're a Bengals fan, you don't subscribe to the athletic. I don't know what you were doing. You should be reading everything you possibly. can about this team.

And Paul and Jay do a great job of covering that team. So please go check that out. Theathletic.com slash football show. You can also hear those guys podcasts. Hear that podcast growling is our Bengals podcast. Eleven Personnel is our Rams podcast with Jordan and Rich Hammond. So please go check both of those out. We'll be back on Tuesday with Mitch.

Until then, appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you soon. This was The Athletic Football Show. No.