The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Bills-Chiefs thriller ends in OT, 49ers stun Rodgers' Packers, Bengals & Burrow to AFC title game, Rams survive Bucs & more

Episode Date: January 24, 2022

It feels like we all witnessed one of the great playoff weekends in NFL history. From stunning upsets, to numerous last-second game-winning kicks, and everything in between, Robert Mays are here to react to it all. How did Patrick Mahomes outlast Josh Allen in his biggest moment? What happens to Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay now that the 49ers have moved on? How did the Rams find the right recipe to keep Brady at bay? And can Joe Burrow continue his miracle run and lead the Bengals to the AFC Championship with this defense? All that and TONS more Divisional review on a postgame 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 is my good friend Nate Tice. Nate, how you doing, buddy? Doing well. Have you come down from that live experience that, I mean, that's like a concert, right? I got to listen to the album where, like, buy the pay-per-view.

You know, like how they used to have that in the 90s. Like, you can watch Woodstock 99 on pay-per-view. I'm sure the live experience was incredible. at a certain point I was just laughing. I was just laughing after everything that would happen. I was just sitting in my chair chuckling to myself. There was a part of me today when I was on the plane this morning after going to my friend's wedding last night,

and I rewatched Niners Packers this morning to make sure that I'd watched it all. Oh, you did that. And it was an amazing thing. We could talk about it later if you want to. I had somehow blacked out everything and watched it with fresh eyes this morning. And I was on the plane.

I was coming here and I was a little tired. I'm like, is this worth going? You know, like, should I have done this? should I just watch this game from my couch? And then as they were just trading those haymakers late in the games, like, this is incredible. There is no place I would rather be right now than right here in this building watching these two teams go at it.

And that's kind of the feel the entire weekend had, right? I mean, last weekend, obviously, had some letdowns. It wasn't exactly the type of playoff weekend you're looking for. This weekend delivered in every way imaginable. We'll get to all of the games. We're going to break all of them down. kind of in reverse chronological order. As you guys can see, I am not at home.

I am in the Visitors' Coaches box at Arrowhead. You're about to do play-by-play at a baseball game. I have the Visitors' Coach's Box at Arrowhead. It smells like mint chew and Diet Coke in this box. That's not even a joke. That's absolutely what it smells like in this box. And you would know that more than anybody because that is essentially what assistant coaches used is to sane themselves.

So that's what it's my own. It's like in air. It's like, you've ever seen the deadliest catch to have like the fisherman's diet, which is like cigarettes, coffee and chocolate. Like, yeah,

there's a coach's diet, which is a lot of dip and diet. Because diet, you know, the full stuff with all the sugar is not good for you. So it's drink the Diet Coke. The Diet Mountain Dew. Diet Mount Dew is also very popular with coaches as well.

All right. So let's dig into this. Was that one of the greatest NFL games we've ever seen? Without a doubt. Without a doubt. What was it like watching at home? Like bonkers. Like.

every moment it just felt like something was happening. I missed the Gabriel Davis TD, the deep bomb, right? The, yeah, I know, which are the four? The deep bomb, the deep post to them to beat the quarters onto the field, beat that, I missed that because I just went to my car to grab something from the trunk and put it back in my garage. And I was like, okay, they probably just started the drive. I'll catch up to the first play.

And it was like as he was catching the ball. First play of that drive. I mean, where else to start? Both of these guys, both of the quarterbacks, had 0.51 EPA per play, which is so fitting because they played like a couple of aliens tonight. Like they were truly Area 51, how they both played. A couple of just get a bucket. Like, that's what this whole game was.

It was them just getting bucket after bucket after bucket. It was like a 58 point versus a 42 point like 24 rebounds each guy. Incredible, incredible game tonight. Just think about the final couple of minutes and everything that happened. It's going. Tyreek Hill scores the touchdown. Then you get that followed by the Bill's touchdown drive, which, I mean, so many plays on that drive. There was that second and ten where Alan thought about running and then he fired the missile to Davis with a 28-yard gain to take them down to the 47. Comes back to Davis on the back shoulder throw, then Emmanuel Sanders, then they gave you Davis touchdown. You saw them, they were really confused, obviously. Sneed bumped over really late. They just weren't in position. They took advantage. And that is before, you. even talking about the touchdown drive that the bills had before that, where they get the fourth and 13, which what Gabriel Davis did to Mike Hughes on that play. I, I can't, I think Mike Hughes is in the ground. Like, he's buried underneath the field here at Arrowhead somewhere. But it was a Dino route

too, by the way. There was another one. We had another double post. I got to add it to the thread. And it was ironic because it was at Arrowhead. They probably watched some films. See DeMarcus Robinson run that. They're like, hey, we can do that with Gabriel Davis. We'll have our other other receiver doing it. But man, he broke him off on that one. That is epitome. Like, that was the perfect route right there. And it's such a cool route when someone runs it. I mean, especially like that. But yeah, it's hard to. And it's hard. And 13 that Alan had that fourth and four where he, Melvin Ingram just absolutely ruined Spencer Brown with a hump move on fourth down. And Alan just escaped. And that is what these guys both did all day. It's what these guys both did all day. I want to get to that. But

first of all, again, there's so much shit to dig through late in the game. So obviously, we have the back and forth. The bill score that final touchdown. Yeah. Then, I mean, not squibbing and kicking that thing deep and giving them a chance. I mean, that's going to haunt them, I assume, for a very long time. And Romo, it was talking about it too. Oh, I would squib it.

I would squib it. And that was, I thought, exactly what they're about to do. Especially I don't think Tyreek Hill was as the kick returner there. I think it was Pringle maybe on that. If Tyrake Hill is back there, I get it, trying to just boot it through the end zone. But he's not. Okay, it was Squibit just in case you don't kick a line drive or, you know, like a one hopper to him. But man, that just didn't make sense at all because that's usually four to six seconds that you can, you can burn off there.

And that was four to six seconds too long, apparently because they just marched down and just how methodical it was. It was just the underneath one to Tyra. It was just like confident in their two minute drill. Underneath row to Tyree Hill. 13 second drill. Yeah. Yeah. It was like the Phoenix Sun's offense from like 20 years ago. And then just like the little seam ball to Kelsey.

Actually, it wasn't a seam ball. It was like a lazy bender. It was up the left sideline. Yeah. He was working against Levi Wallace who had a rough final couple possessions because he was also trailing Tyree Kill on the long touchdown. And after he had a nice season and for it to end like that kind of sums up how the bills are feeling overall right now. But outside of the late game decision making, whatever, I want to get back into just what a felt like watching the quarterbacks.

It was almost like watching Pacific Rim or something where you're just these two giant monsters just punching each other back and forth. I mean, Alan was magnificent. He was absolutely incredible. All the different plays he made with his legs. The missile shot on the deep touchdown. When it felt like it was like, it was like, why are they dinking and dunking this entire game?

Like, where are, why are they not pushing the ball down the field at all? And then they come back with a point. play action over the cover two 70 yard touchdown bomb. And then with Mahomes, obviously just the on the screws throws late in the game. But to me, the thing that really jumped out over the course of the entire four quarters, he would not let plays die. The stat that really jumped out to me, I think he was pressured like 13 times this game, 13 pressures, and he was sacked twice.

and the amount of work he did to get out of jams, to extend plays with his legs, to pick up first downs on the ground, the first drive. The two scrambles he had for 40-something yards on the first drive. I mean, both of these guys were not going to be denied in this game. The only reason the bills lost this game,

I mean, there are plenty of reasons, but the reason that the game ended with the bill's loss is because they didn't touch the ball again. I mean, there's nothing else you could ask for from Josh Allen in that game. Yep. What's the adage, whoever gets the ball last?

Yeah. That's how that game felt. I mean, actually did in the final two and a half-ish minutes plus overtime. The scrambling, the bills leaned into some two men. Remember against the Patriots? And right away, they went against and it makes sense against Tyrick Hill and Travis Kelsey, who are two true advantage. That's what they did in week five. And it worked out.

And it worked out. And Mojom said, all right, screw this. If we don't have an outbreak and route or something else because he hit Tyrick Hill as well on the catch. run for the touchdown. He beat, beat him inside, beat the corner inside, which is so, I just believe it was Wallace. He had inside leverage. He had heavy inside leverage. Yep. Heavy inside leverage because it's trail technique, but his inside leverage. I'll say it all time with the show because you see so much two men, especially in the playoffs because they're daring the quarterback to run or make a hero throw or have a freaking four to five Tyreek Hill beat a guy with inside or beat him inside with

the endbreaker. But Mahomes knew where he was going with that. He went one, two, three, whipped it right away. He trusted Tyre Kill to win inside, which is. is a whole other level of star power when you can trust you. That's Rainy Moss, they're on the hand up at five yards and then you just throw it deep. Basically, that's the equivalent of that. But also the bills were running some one robber variations, like two man and one robber go together as kind of changeups off of each other. And the bills were getting to that a little bit. And seeing that happen a couple times, the chiefs are trying to run some man zone tells. They're trying to get to different types of concepts against that.

And on base downs, when the bills would be in too high or kind of lean in too high, maybe have a late rotation, the chiefs are spreading them out and run like a little Y insert run play. And on this one, it was, it was very cool, like all the little things that they were sprinkling in and trying to like just get themselves some breathing room. And really, Mahomes wasn't attacking deep either, which was kind of crazy too. It was all kind of intermediate to short throws. His area, he was like five something air yards per target in this entire game. He was doing no no throws of 20. Air Yards in this entire game for Patrick Mahomes.

So it almost felt like the best version of what the chiefs needed to be this year, where you had just surgical work from Mahomes and the underneath areas the field. Think about that sidearm throw early in the game where he's just making something happen that shouldn't be there, where they were just doing all the work they needed to underneath. And Kelsey and Hill dominated. And Hill dominated with the ball in his hands after the catch because it was all stuff that was within five to ten yards of the line of scrimmage. And that's what teams are going to give them.

And the fact that they were able to be so dangerous and so just devastating on those sorts of plays and with that sort of game plan, again, that's exactly the type of offense we've wanted them to be for so long this season. And it's what they were in the most important game of the season. And the bills, we've talked about how they squeeze. They squeeze, they squeeze when they're running zone coverages. And then the man, they do such a great job at Passen's. passing it off.

They are letting you throw it to the flat. They want you to throw underneath and then they'll rally and tackle. They go, that's a four yard game. We're fine with it because you're not going to take that all day. You're going to get greedy. Well, when you have Tyreek Hill catching a ball in the flat, taking a step back, which is just so crazy that he does that every time now, just catches those balls. And then like does a little backstep like three yards.

And then he squares the guys up because he's just, he's on fast forward motion all the time. But doing that, and that's how he's able to get all those yards after catch. He was just able to pepper. That was their way of pepper. them. They were just like, okay, tackle them. Okay, tackle them. We'll prove it. Prove if you can tackle them. And a lot of times they weren't able to. It would be a two-yard throw, they would gain 10 yards. That's that hitting yardage that Tyreek Hill creates along with like the deep ball stuff that he can do too. How do you feel about the overtime rules and the

overtime conversation? Because it's one of those moments where right now, I think it's easy to say it sucks the ball team, don't touch the ball. And that's kind of where I'm at with it is that it sucks that both teams don't touch the ball, but I don't have a better answer. And it feels like it's not worth using this game as a reason to change it or having it be some sort of referendum on the rule. In this moment, though, after that game, it's unfortunate that it had to end with Alan not getting a chance. I will say that. We always say it when it's usually two good quarterbacks involved or the quarterback, another good quarterback doesn't get the ball. But then those other games where it happens in like week 12 when it's just no one's watching.

everyone, no one says a word. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. They scored right away. I get it. We want to see more fun football, but it's also, I think it's just kind of perfect. It makes it so tense like, hey, we got to stop for a touchdown because you can even get that life of, hey, we stopped, held him to a field goal.

All right, we're alive. We got the ball now. I don't know. You also have 60 minutes of regulation to win. So this is a real. Yeah. And if you get a stop. Like that it's a touchdown and not a field goal.

Deonté Lee from PFF, our buddy Deontes said it after the game. You should be able to get a stop. If you can't get a stop, you probably don't deserve to win. It's unfortunate in this moment after the game we just watched to not see Alan touch the ball again. But it's a long game where they had a lot of different chances to potentially win it. I mean, they had five different chances to win it. And the final two minutes, it felt like they could get one. That two minutes was every time, our little notes is, you know, what was the big play that changed the game?

It was five times. I was like, well, was that. Oh, no. It was that one. Oh, yeah. That section does not apply to the game that we just watched. It was not. It was ongoing.

Every single moment was the turning point in that game. Build the whole. plane of two mini-drails. With Bill's chiefs, two-minute drills, just build the whole play out of it. It's just, it'll fly to the moon. So I'm sitting here right now. I'm looking at the scoreboard at Arrowhead. And it says, the chiefs are the first team.

It's standing up. It's locked up there. They're not changing the screen. First team to host four consecutive AFC championship games, Kansas City Chiefs. And that to me, if we're going to take a step back and think about this game and what it means for both of these teams. the chiefs are just mindlessly here now and dominant and a present. And they're going to be, right?

I mean, even in this season where they were imperfect and this game felt almost like a throwback. This game felt like a 2018-2019 chiefs game. Not in the ways they moved the ball offensively, but what their offense needed to do. And they were still able to do it. And we talked about this on Friday and it's a thought that's really hard to shake right now. this bill's team was built was built to beat this chief's team this was it it was them having that a fc championship game loss in their mind the entire offseason the moves they made this spring the mindset was all about beating this team and getting over the hump and it looked like they

were going to do it it looked like they had done it looks like everything they had put in from the resources to every bit of motivation they might have had for an entire year was all going to culminate in this moment where Josh Allen showed that he was on the same level as Patrick Mahomes and that the bills were on the same level as the chiefs and they were ready to take their place at the top of the AFC. And now, now what? Yeah. Now the chiefs are just still here and this bill's team just suffered, I mean, one of the

most devastating losses I've ever seen because of all of the buildup and because of what this moment was supposed to be for this team and for Josh Allen and this fan base and everything. Every bit of the last three, four years under the McDermott era was supposed to come to that moment we just saw with that final Gabriel Davis touchdown. And instead, it's Mitch Morris getting consoled by Travis Kelsey because the bills are done. And now you kind of sit back and like, if we couldn't do it now, Jesus. Yeah. Then when are we going to do it? Yeah.

And that is a really, really hard thing to face after the game that they just played. And it's like, you know, okay, we got to. Josh Allen, which is, okay, that's the fun part. But this current build of players, too, like this is a hard defense to play against weekend, week out. And like you said, it's meant to go against the top teams. Like they might have some blemishes here and there. Okay, the three pass plays against the Patriots in the negative 20 degree game. But they were meant to play top tier offenses and give them a hard time, whether it be the bucks into Super Bowl, the Rams, the chiefs, All these top, I mean, guest of angles as well, they have the top offense too.

But all these vertical offenses that want to get after you, that's how their defense was built. And they have this perfect kind of blend of players. We call them it. I call them the no name defense on our Friday show, but I was kind of meaning that as a compliment. Yeah, absolutely. All these great, great, great, great, good players, but just good players, solid players that know the rules and play the rules well. It's hard to keep that together. It's hard to have that year after year.

You bring up that point all the time. Hard to sustain defensive success year after year. you're going to have ebbs and flows with it. And this offense, kind of the same thing. Josh Allen's only going to get paid more money. It's all just like, that's going to just have to change everything. This blend of teams going to be so different in a year from now, and especially two years from now.

You love the building blocks, though, and the different pieces they have, but it's just, yeah, it just felt like a page turning here. They were the number one team in defensive DVOA over the course of the season, right? That's hard to do. Yes. If you're a number one, maybe if you're, even if you're a really good defense, there's a good chance you fall to 7, 8. We talk about it all the time.

So that thing, bottling that thing is difficult. It felt like by the end of the season, they had paired the best defense in football for the entire year with maybe an even more devastating version of the offense we saw for much of 2020. That's what this team felt like over the last month. It felt like this convergence of one of the best offenses in football with the best defense in football. There are teams and fan bases at this stage of the calendar. when they lose, it's like, man, this could have been our year.

And they're lying to themselves. This is a Super Bowl team. This at their best is arguably the best team in football. And that is why this moment stings so bad. Because there's no delusion in that. There's no lying to yourself as a Bills fan saying, this was it. This was our moment to do this. Now, I'm not saying the Bills are going to fall off by any stretch.

You know, you look at their roster, not a lot of big name free agents going into next season. Levi Wallace is a free agent. Jerry Hughes is a free agent. They've planned for that, right? I mean, they've built their defensive line to have so many different guys kind of cycle in and out. Their offense for the most part will come back intact next year. Alan has one more cheap year on his deal.

His cap it next year is like $16 million. So they can keep a good chunk of this team together. They will be a contender again next year. But what happens with Brian Dable? What happens with Leslie Frazier? Does one of them leave? This is what happens. This is what happens.

when you're really good. And when you're really good and you don't finish it off, this is the type of stuff you have to face. And it is going to be a long, long offseason in Buffalo. And you also start seeing the brain drain start happening in the front office. And just their assistant GM is now the GM of the giants. It starts to happen. And it becomes really hard to stay good. And you really want, if that's going to happen to you, you really want that Super Bowl feather in your cap. And then it's like, okay, okay, we had a good run there. Okay, we're trying to rebuild it now. Exactly.

It's scary sometimes when you get so close. That's a double devastating effect, I guess. Oh, wow, we didn't get there. And we're losing all these guys that we trust or respect and have built up relationships with. And that's the absent flows of it. You might not lose players, but you might lose other things. And that's exactly what it is.

Another year as well, some of these guys that might be in their 30s as well. It's just all these little things that just add. up. But yet, like you said, it's a good chunk of this team coming back. So that's fun. They, they play such a fun style. Totally. This team was so fun. Defensively, a sound defense that rotated guys had these all great players and then an offense with freaking Josh Allen back there. What else do I need to say? Just like speed and running all over the stuff, all over the place, having good play calling. So it is, it is sad that we might lose this version of the bills. And I don't want to end it on that kind of sad note because I do want to, I want to appreciate what Allen was

tonight and what this means for us. Because the guy he's been over the last couple weeks is better than the guy who was last year. I mean, somehow, this person that he's been in the last month or so is even better than the MVP candidate we saw in 2020. Think about how patient he was in these games. Think about some of the throws he took in those moments that showed maturation and development and progress.

And if you're a Bills fan, I think the solace you can take in this game is that your guy is one of the guys. That game we just watched with Mahomes and Alan just trading aimmakers for three hours. We get to watch that hopefully for the next 10 years. And when you have one of the guys, it doesn't matter if the team gets a little bit more expensive. It doesn't matter if you're going to lose a couple guys here and there or you lose a defensive coordinator. That guy is going to keep you relevant. And it really does feel like he has a seat at that table now. And it changes the outlook of what this team is moving forward, in my opinion. And without a doubt, what stars shine brightest in the biggest moments.

And you cannot say that Josh Allen doesn't play well when it's a big moment because he has had multiple games this year where it's, you have those like, that's an MVP right there. That's the caliber player that he is. And like you said, that makes everything better. Everything tastes better when you have a quarterback like that. Yeah, that's the chiefs. I was just going to say, chiefs already have that. So those fans, it's nice that you can get, you can always have that.

that for the next, you know, five, 10, 12 years. Well, plenty of time to talk about the Chiefs and the Bengals here over the next week or so. Let's get to the other game from today. I mean, oh, my God. It's so funny because the last time I was here was in 2018. It was after the 2018 season was the AFC championship game that year. And the game that was going on while we were waiting for the Patriots Chiefs game to start was that Rams Saints NFC championship game with the crazy pass interference.

So that was the last time I was here, and I'm sitting with a couple other writers that were also there at that game. We're like, God, every time we're in this press box watching another game somewhere else, just crazy stuff is happening. I mean, the Rams avoided an all-time loss. If they lost that game, that's one of those that is hard to come back from. And somehow they managed to scrape their way by. That would have been a franchise changer, like completely. That was like a nuclear moment that almost just happened. They just avoided it.

So close. It felt inevitable. As soon as they showed that Brady has come back from the like the biggest comeback that Brady has had is like the 20, 273 game or whatever, the Super Bowl against the Falcons and their 283 and it was kind of felt from that moment on. Everything got really tight for the Rams. Just felt like it was inevitable. It would have been all timer.

I mean, absolutely all timer. And it's so funny because you look at that, they had four turnovers and you would just assume if I showed you that. that box score after the game was over that Matthew Stafford gave the bucks a couple. And that's the opposite of what happened. They just kept fumbling the ball in a way that was maddening and almost spoiled what was an incredible Matthew Stafford game. I mean, we'll talk about the final throw in that decision.

But even beyond that final throw to cup, I thought he was remarkable in this game. I mean, every single ball down the field seemed to be on the money. I mean, honestly, outside of that one, miss in the end zone that almost got picked by Jamel Dean. There were not that many moments in this game. They're like, oh, man, he really let that one slip. And he was really sharp for most of this entire afternoon. You saw him pushing the ball like and expanding the whole field that they're attacking.

And you can see the Bucks defense just being like, wow, looking around like, how can we breathe? Like we have to cover the deep, deep half. The other Cooper Cup touchdown where he caught on the go right there. 30 20, yeah. Yeah, just punishes the safety for being out, not deep half and not playing his rules. And doing that just makes it exhausting. He had early on, he had a like sidearm throw to OBJ.

It was like a little crosser and OBJ took it up the sideline. That was like such a spectacular throw that we kind of just gets lost and all the other throws that he did today. But that's the stuff he does. It's just make those. It's Jason Williams. It's white chocolate. He can't throw a normal throw.

everything has to be a trick shot and that's exactly what it is but it looks so cool when it's working and today it was working he was read the game really well the pressures weren't phasing him he's standing strong strong in the pocket it felt this is one of the games that he really felt in control i agree felt like he knew exactly what was coming maybe because he's played todd bowles a lot before macbaye has had good game plans against todd bulls before but he just felt every play he was very much in control even that botch snap wasn't on him the one that went by him that was the right guard just kind of thinking Stafford took a step. It's so crazy like when that happens.

Why is it always happening like a playoff game or something? Human element, I guess. But Stafford was, this is one of those best performances I've seen in play because he was just fully in control this offense, the entire game. Even at the designary place, he had OBJ on the sideline, like a little switch verticals where they had a cup in his backfield and then they did the orbit motion. On that one, Stafford threw that so early that the sinking corner just had no, no chance on the way.

Yeah. So all those plays, he was so in tune on what the concept was and what the defense was giving him. It was a really fun performance from him. That third and 20 touchdown to cup, something he does extremely well. He's really intentional about what he does with his eyes, the safeties, because he has the arm to make up for it, right? He can come late to stuff because his arm is so strong. So on that play, he does a great job of looking to his left, holding just for a second, and then coming back late to that play because it doesn't allow that cover two safety to get

the sideline the way that he has to on that play. And it's just those little things and how he can manipulate the game because of that physical talent. To me, that is just a reminder of why they made the trait, right? And that, when you watched him today, when you watched the Rams today, it was proof of concept for why they made the decisions that they made over the last year. And again, we can talk about value and how it's going to affect them long term. And I understand all that.

But you make the Stafford trade with today in mind, and you saw what it is for them and what it can do for that. You make the Von Miller trade with today in mind. He was a menace in this game. The entire game. You sit and look at OBJ hitting free agency and say, eh, why not? With today in mind. That is why you do this. That is why you kind of collect all this star power, and it may look a little disjointed as you're going through the season,

but in games where it's all about how many one-on-one matchups can we have, how many one-on-one matchups can we win, how many game swinging moments can we create? And when you have six, eight guys on your roster, capable of creating those game swinging moments over and over and over again, and the team that you're playing has been sapped of those sorts of players, you see the disconnect that existed for the first three quarters of this game. And you have random role players stepping up,

like Van Jefferson having a good game. And when those guys step up with the stars. Nick Scott. Nick Scott had like several moments in this game. Incredible play on Gronk on the corner route. Oh my God. And the pick. He had a pick. Oh yeah.

Yes, the pick. But we're Stafford too. You just talked about this is where the stars come. Stars, if there's a weakness against the other team, okay, a star against a good player, they went some of the matchups, a majority of the matchups. A star against an average or below average or poor player, then it's. dominance. Then it's every time it's third down, this guy's winning or putting pressure or jumping up into the throwing lanes. And that's what like Vaughn Miller was doing today. Even the play going into like one of the original stars at the Rams or traded stars, the Ramsey trade from a few years ago. The play that Weddell got the penalty on, uh, Ramsey made a fantastic play on Mike Evans on that ball. It was a fourth down late in the game as well. And just those plays. That's where these guys step up. You see Stafford early in the game when he's in rhythm. Again, they had a really good game plan because the Bucks were playing so much man.

It looked like early on. All those plays, he's not taking the underneath option. It's pushing the ball. Pushing, pushing, pushing. So that's what a, I would say Matt Stafford's a star, star quarterback, but he's playing like one at times. He has a star talent. Star talent. He hits those throws.

He hits those triples and home runs instead of the singles and doubles. And those add up. They just add up over a game. And when he's not getting punished, he's not getting hit in the pocket too much, not getting pressure it. He can get the ball off. that's what these guys can do. Or when they are getting pressured, like on the last play to cop, he can make the hero throw and throw freaking 50 yards against cover zero

and just make a, make a defense. How does that happen? Again. How does that happen? Right. It was, it was, it was bold,

hey, these aggressive defense courteers, man, spags, bowls, all these guys. There's one thing you can't allow to have happen in that moment. Yep. Get beat deep. I know. And it was cool after the game. They interviewed Stafford and then they interviewed Cup. Both gave great interviews.

And on both of them, they said the play before, because they hit Cup on like an outbreaker, it was two man, which the Bucks will run. It was too many. They love running it actually. So it ran two men. So they came out of it. They go to the next play. They talked it over, they said.

And they knew that maybe these guys are going to be playing or two man and playing outside leverage. And if you look on that play, Antoine Winfield is playing outside leverage. On that cover zero, he has on him. Anticipating another outbreaker, he had a sail route. They just ran right down the pipe. It was pretty cool. It was a page behind.

It was like, we might see this team bringing pressure. So what's hidden with a shot and not just an outbreaker for 20 yards, which is hit the 50 yarder to set up the field goal. Pretty cool little mini chess match happening just in a two minute drive. Speaking of pressure, I thought the Rams defensive game plan today was aggressive and ended up being a really good way to approach it. You know, we talked so much about Worf's maybe not playing, which he didn't, and what that might mean. This wasn't a failing just by the right tackle. The Bucks offensive line got their ass kicked in this game.

Yeah. They blitzed on the Bs, the Rams blitzed on a third of their downs against Tom Brady in this game. And it was a lot of five-man pressures, right? They, I think they looked at this game. And they did use a lot of five-man pressures the first time these two teams played. I think they looked at what the Bucks want to do. They looked at the offensive line and said, if we create one-on-ones this entire day, we're going to consistently win.

And that's exactly what happened. They pressured Brady 17 times. Von Miller had an incredible game against Donovan Smith. Yep. On plays where he was Blitz today, Brady was 6 of 16 for 22 yards. Which is crazy. Brady usually slices that stuff out. Slices it up.

That's what's insane. And I think that is, it's two things, right? If you're not afraid of that many receiving options on the other side of the ball, I think you can feel comfortable being a little bit more aggressive. And when you feel like you have some mismatches up front, I think you can feel comfortable being a little bit more aggressive. And that's exactly what they were today. So I thought that that approach served them well.

I mean, they don't fumble the ball four times. This game doesn't end up being close. The Bucks did a really good job with those opportunities late in the game. But I thought the Rams were a bad matchup for Tampa Bay coming into this game. On paper, I thought that the way the bucks were situated right now, who was on their roster, healthy who wasn't even guys that are playing if they're 75 80 percent do they have the right setup the right makeup the right overall just style to play against this rams team and i thought it was

going to be a challenge and it was i mean the rams were a better team today pretty comfortably than the bucks and how their defense played was really cool the the pressure stat was a great stack because that's how their whole energy was of being so aggressive until yeah so the fourth quarter where you could feel a little wind coming out of their sale But early on, I mean, they were taking it to them. And knowing that they're bringing pressure and like you said, creating the five 101s, one of our guys is going to win. It's inevitable.

One of our guys is going to win, especially on the outside, which they were. They were creating the edginess in the pocket. And so Brady, who has fantastic pocket movement, he's stepping to the side. And then you're getting these long loopers on the outside or the front side, Von Miller winning over and over. Just getting that heat because Brady couldn't step up. He had to step to the side. And so he's not getting that in up depth. This is it sound weird, that up depth in the pocket.

So now the edge rushers who are getting long, looping pass rush lanes are now getting to the quarterback. That's why he saw so many those strip sack opportunities that they had, the Rams had, not just able to get up in the pocket. That's kind of the combination of pass rush that when you have really dominant players, it kind of looks really pretty. But also when they're doing it, Brady at first was trying to start hitting some of the underneath routes that I maybe thought that they would get to a lot. They were going to the outsides a lot, which makes sense, hitting those outbreaks because in pressure coverages, corners might play a little softer, not trying to get beat over the top. So that made sense. But when he was trying to go over the interior, the safeties and everybody, the defenders were playing so down. It was just, Tyler Johnson got smoked a couple times.

I mean, that wettle hit. I mean, even there were a couple different plays in that game where guys were just huge collisions because of how downhill they were playing. I mean, you could see that. That was the mindset, the entire game. from the Rams. And it's exciting because we know the offense has this gear, right? We've seen it, especially early in the season. I thought the pass protection with, with, we're without, I thought No Boom did a really good job in a lot of one-on-one spots early. And so when you see it, even with their left tackle missing, we know this offense has this gear, especially against a team. We

watched them hit a bunch of deep shots against early in the season. To me, it was about what the defense could do. How high is the ceiling of this defense in town? We know the stars, right? But there have been times this year especially where the secondary has been lacking where they've struggled in some areas and if they can hit that gear over the next couple weeks here then we're seriously cooking with gas and I think that has to be encouraging they have super super high upside can can I talk about the the four net touchdown on fourth and one you certainly can they ran it was a lot a lot of fun plays that part parts happened on that but it was boxer and duo it was just really cool to see a team two double.

teams in the interior of the line, by the way, for people that don't know. It's power without the polar. Yes, it's double teams. It's a at you play. And the bucks run it all the time. Looked like a QB sneak situation all the way. Rams tighten everybody up, tight in the front, tighten the front. So they ran do it, which was awesome.

Cool change up, especially with a play they run all the time. Grock doesn't get off his double team. And guess who comes through the hole? Troy Reader. And I just want to compliment Leonard for Nett because he actually had a pretty good game. He was very dynamic today. But he makes him missing the hole and scores on the touchdown. But that was a great example of goal line and short yardage plays just truly because that is when they say game of inches, that blocking, especially on a play like duo, every defender has to

hit their gap hard and every blocker can't have any wasted steps. And that's where you can see it happen. Gronk just gives a little too much help to the other tight end. I think it was great. Doesn't come off on reader. And that's why that short yard and goal line stuff is such bang, bang. And we'll talk about later. There was one that happened in the Titans Bengals game as well. But those situations can be really, really cool with these plays because it's truly 101, 101, 101, 101, 101, 101, 101. Everybody has to win.

It's like option football. And then the running back has to find a spot, find his lane. And Fournette did a great job of balancing it. But it was a cool play. It was duo. I had that note written down just in case the bucks did make a comeback. So I wanted to pop it off right there. Speaking of Leonard Fournet.

Yeah. Let's talk about what the bucks are looking at here over the next couple. couple months. Obviously, there was the report earlier today from ESPN that Brady was going to be mulling his future based on some cryptic social media posts. It seems like he's probably going to be back. Berzerian said definitively that he is going to be back next season. So obviously, the guys at the center of this will likely be back in the fold in 2022. But we knew this coming in. This is an old team. By just overall roster age at cutdown day, it's the third oldest team in the NFL before the season started, which makes sense.

Even beyond your 44-year-old quarterback, you have, you know, JPP, there are guys on this defense that are getting up there. Levante David is in his 30s. So you look at it, they have like $19 million in cap space according to over the cap next year. But Ryan Jensen's a free agent, Chris Godwin's a free agent, Carlton Davis is a free agent, JPP is a free agent, Leonard Fornett is a free agent. They've got some decisions to make.

And some of those spots, there are succession plans, right? They drafted try on in the first round last year. You do that with an understanding that eventually he'll take over one of those starting spots. But other guys, I would assume they're going to be motivated to pay Godwin, but at a certain point, it gets hard. You start running out of money. Evans has a $14 million base salary next year. They could easily restructure if they want to. I feel like he's an impossible player to overpay based on just how unflinchingly good he is every single year.

It's ridiculous. But this is another one of those moments where the window, we'd say this about Tom Brady for the next 20 years, it feels like. I know. But the window is a certain amount of time. It is small when you consider the overall age and makeup of the roster. They brought all these guys back for one more go-around, and they made some financial concessions to do it.

This is a team that had kept a clean cap for years and kind of allowed them to do this when the team was worth a deal. investing. I think that was a conversation with ownership. It's like, listen, we just won the Super Bowl. Can we pull some strings we wouldn't normally pull to allow us to keep this thing together? And the answer was yes. But when it falls short and now you're looking at a season like Bruce Ariens kind of set, the finity of it really creeps up on you. I mean, it's over now. It doesn't matter that they won it last year. It didn't matter that they had this team that looked like the best team in the NFL for stretches this season. It's over. You might as well have never not made the playoffs if you're this Tampa Bay team after winning it last year. So now, What happens? Who's back? Who's not? Are we going to see as complete a version of this team as we did this year? Maybe not.

Same thing with their coordinators. Does Leftwich get one of these jobs? With Brady, I think that it mitigates the impact of that. But at the same time, similar conversation than what we had about Buffalo. So those are the things that this team is going to be facing this off season after a disappointing end. When you're coming off a Super Bowl win,

losing the divisional round, no matter how you slice it is difficult to stomach. Yeah. And this team is, without a doubt all in. And it's more about, okay, how do we keep this window just, just open enough? That's what this entire, every strategy they have. Well, first off, it's get number 12 back.

Okay, all right, the next steps. Then what we do, we go from there. I mean, but Gronk gets another year older. If he's coming back and if he's, you know, we don't know what he does. We got the Godwin situation, I think is more. I mean, of course we're going to be biased to Chris Godwin on this podcast, but that situation is more pertinent than I think maybe people realize what he does for that offense, that role and seeing these other guys, Starry Johnson's fine.

Scotty Miller is not the same type of player. They might have to draft one out. Hey, I know. I know there's so many favorites on that team. Scott Miller actually had a great stop route when they were attacking outside. Oh, man, he sold it so. He got back too quick. Brady had to like hit him in the body because he got, he broke him off like too fast.

But, but I think the guys like the God one, the JPP one, I don't think is going to be as you know, devastating. And then the backs is a good back class. I could see that path. But man, Jensen is, that's another priority. That is huge. What him and Brady do, protection-wise, is one of the best of the best. Brady obviously is very good.

But Jensen's very good in his own right without Brady even helping him. I'm telling you, future Chicago bear, Ryan Jensen, I'm willing it into existence. He's 1A. Oh, my God. That would be such, oh, that'd be so great for that team. Yeah. Makes too much sense. Second year quarterback.

Go get yourself a veteran center. Attitude wise. It's like just, yeah, it's a perfect match. Yeah, I like that too. So never mind. Let's talk about that. But put a bit on that. But really, but that's the thing.

It's just this is what happens. Everything gets more expensive. Who are the replacements? You better have a plan. I mean, we'll just see what happens. But as long as they get number 12 back, at least, okay, they can take a little bit of a breath. All right. So let's talk about my night last night.

Okay. So I watched the first half of the Bengals Titans game and I had to go to my friend's way. So we go to the wedding and I'm just kind of milling around and I watched like a good chunk of the fourth quarter on my phone as we were sitting down to dinner. I wasn't being rude. We were just sitting down. I was the first person to sit down. I watched the last couple drives. And then after, so after that, I was like, all right, I'm shutting it down.

There was no, not a TV in the place. It was like a specific wedding venue. There's not a bar. There's nothing to worry about there. So there's not a television in the whole place. I did not check Twitter for the entire rest of the wedding. several people tried to tell me what was happening, and I started yelling at them. I was like, ah, nah, I don't want to know.

And I managed to escape the entire reception without doing any of this. A lot of my friends that would have texted me were there. So I didn't have to worry about it. A lot of people knew where I was. So we drove home, no radio at all. Didn't turn a single thing on. I was going to ESPN notifications on my phone, but with a new iPhone, it doesn't come up with the text.

It's just ESPN. And when I would open the phone, I'd be able to look away from it and not see it. It was amazing. And so I get home and I want to rewatch, I want to watch the second half of Bengals Titans before I go to bed. Because I had a flight this morning and I had rewatch everything. So I had Casey go downstairs and turn on the TV and bring up the recording on the DVR. So I didn't turn on live TV for any amount of time. So I watched the entire Bengals Titans second half last night before I went to bed.

I woke up at 6 a.m. this morning without knowing. anything you're a trooper about the game i didn't know a single thing about the game it wouldn't matter right i mean it cares but it just felt it was so much more fun to watch it not knowing what happened i mean you just see the experience for everybody else when the block pun happened i was losing my mind it was like seven in the morning i was alone in my basement what the oh my god the abs and flows of that game that first drive happened for the packers and it was Oh boy, here we go. Let's see if that 49ers run game can keep up.

We're going, oh, man, over's hitting. This thing's going, you know, 34, 30. And then stuff happened. A lot of schlock happened in a good way. That Fred Warner punchout felt like a wake-up call moment for the Niners defense. It did. It felt like it. They really kind of locked in in that moment.

And after that, I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that was an all-time defensive performance. When you think about, I know the conditions were bad, but when you think about them playing against the MVP and how, I went back and I watched the L-22 at times today when I had breaks

when I was sitting at the game and it was halftime in the Bucks game, things like that. And I was like, how good do they really play? Right? Like how much did Rogers leave on the field? And you watch every single drive in the first half,

like third possession, fourth possession, On a third down or a second and 11 or whatever, it's a beautiful coverage. They're rotating late. They're playing a bunch of different stuff. It's cover six, but they come to it in a strange way. They bring the corner off the edge and they rotate to cover two where Ward and Tart are on the same side playing the flat and the deep half. It's two man where they're bracketing atoms in the exact right ways.

They're playing cover two, but they come to it in such a way where the corners are all. already so deep that the whole shots aren't there. They play one, the cover two snap with the blitz off the edge where the both safeties are on the same side, Warner is a middle runner perfectly down the middle of the field. It was gorgeous. I mean, it was like watching art unfold with some of these coverages and just some of the spacing and the timing. And we know this team is capable of that.

I think I wanted to see if that performance last week against the Cowboys was a sign of what's to come or just a really good week of football. it was the latter. I mean, they have really settled into something here. Especially those safeties, it was cool watching them operate. I mean, they are so, they bring an attitude first time. Jimmy Ward's like not the like biggest built guy. Like he's taller, but he's not like this big boxy dude.

He brings an attitude when he plays in Tart. Everyone knows, but brings plays with an attitude. But they're smart. They're not just headhunters. They understand the coverage stuff. They've gotten so, Jimmy Ward especially, he's gotten so much better since he's who's at Northern Illinois. But watching the different looks they were giving Rogers throughout this entire game without

running anything. It was exotic like you were saying by having the two safeties on the side, but nothing was out of sorts. Like it wasn't just doing shit to do. It wasn't Rex Ryan stuff. No, it was not crazy. It wasn't rule breaking like two guys through the same gap. It was more just, hey, what's modify the looks.

We know what they like in this situation. So rather than just running split cover two and just sit in here. What's, hey, what's rotate a guy? Let's have a different guy down the pipe. What's having a different guy as a deep half player. That is what gets these better quarterbacks. It's pressure with front four, which this team can do. And then if you run coverages, it's not sitting static, same coverages over and over, which

you can do, but you're going to get beat after over 60 plays, 70 plays, they're going to beat you. But if you make them hesitate that half second, that extra second where they're like, ooh, one's not open. I'm on two. And you have a pass rush like the 49ers do. against an offense aligned without their left tackle, playing mixing guys, something that they played really well this whole year.

But it bit him in the heel this game. And you also have Rogers that was just not seeing the game as he can see it outside of the first drive. Really, early on, it was just Pepper Devante Adams. But when they had to get to their page two stuff of their game playing, started just really just feeling tight on the entire offense. They were not afraid of anybody else. Nope.

By the way they were, they were playing. And when they were playing man, just sticky man coverage, true double teams. And we overuse that idea and that phrase in a football context, but true double teams in a lot of these moments. Playing mugged up on a lot of third downs. And you can do that when Fred Warner can just gain the depth and has the movement skills that he has. Same with Greenlaw.

I mean, Greenlaw was just bailing out. And just the overall space they can cover, no matter how they line up as a zone-based defense, is really impressive. And they were just doing it throughout the game. What I've thought against this 4-9ers team is when you at you runs, the duo runs, the split zone type of runs were better. And the Packers were really getting a more tossy place, more outside stuff, which I think after that first drive when they grinded them into dust with those duo runs on the first touchdown drive. You know what?

I'm curious. Do you think it was because Dylan got hurt? Dylan. But Aaron Jones is pretty good at him. He is? I know. That's kind of weird. I go side to side.

Fred Warner and Greenlaw aren't the biggest linebackers in the world. That's what they want by design. That team, they draft for speed. They want speed, smart, fast players. That is what Kyle Shanahan likes on offense and defense. That's what he likes. And these linebackers running sideline to sideline, that's kind of playing into their hands a little bit.

I agree. And that was kind of very interesting. I rewatched a good chunk of this game this morning. And same thing I thought. I was looking at the run game because I wanted to see where did that go, where it just went away. And that's what it was. When they did get to the runs, they were getting only one, two yards.

And now you're at second and longs. And they're squeezing on your stuff. They're getting home with the pass rush. Everything just kind of had that trickle down effect. And they weren't creating those big plays that they needed. The one at the end, when the game really flowed after the block or flipped with after the block punt. Then that next third down, Roger's tried to go deep. Everyone's going nuts about him missing the dig route.

I can see how Rogers got a little wonky on that because, you know, the 40-9ers brought both freaking safeties on a blitz. which is bonkers. But it was a safe pressure, quote unquote, when you bring your safeties. They only brought five guys because they dropped everyone else. But they brought the both safeties. Like it wasn't man coverage. It was them coming from depth.

But Rogers saw that. And he's, he's thinking, okay, this is quarters or they're bringing the safety down late. They're not going to get someone to the post. I'm going deep. Well,

29 was in a weird spot, right? He was the tamper player. Yeah. That makes sense. I was like, where was he supposed to be a line? Where was he supposed to be? It was a pressure coverage, quote, unquote.

That means as an offensive guy, I don't know the exact rules, but I know they're funky and they get to it. But also, Rogers is in five-man protection on that play. They chip help like the Rams do out of the empty there. But you have to, when you're an empty as a quarterback, the good ones know, hey, you're not hot, but you're warm right away. I'm an empty and I'm looking at pressure. Are these guys bearing down or I don't really know the look? I'm one and done with my reads. Rogers isn't in that full creator mode anymore.

He wasn't Mahomes and Josh Allen. He's just not anymore. He can do it, you know, some time to time. He gets those first downs with his legs, but that's not really what he lives by anymore. So what he was all in on that deep throw. And I get it. You're going to Devante Adams. You think they're bringing something tight.

The safeties are at 10 yards. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's rip. But that's kind of how the whole game felt. It's like they had to take those shot plays. It's like that must be our answer as opposed to being in control. Like you usually see the Packers offense.

It was funny because I thought I think K.1 Williams is my X factor in this game. We talked about it on Friday. And they were great in that area of the field. Just making them pay consistently. They're going to take, this team is going to take those. They are going to take those if you give it to them. You have to tackle and you have to make them pay when they do it. Those have to be two, three yard gains consistently.

I mean, think about that Emmanuel Mosley just whack on Adams where they kind of trapped him on that play. That was indicative of the mindset, the approach, everything about their defense in this game. So let's have an Aaron Rogers conversation. Oh, boy. It's, I don't like getting too far into this, these things. because I think a lot of them are fake, like Matthew Stafford having this playoff block when he'd only played in three playoff games

and he was a touchdown underdog and all of them. And now he's played in two games with the Rams and has looked incredible. I think Matthew Stafford's playoff failings were probably being on a worst team that never made the playoffs rather than having... Are you saying it's a team game?

Yeah, rather than him having some strange thing where he loses his mind when he goes into a playoff game. But with Rogers, even if you don't put it squarely on him, He wasn't great yesterday. And this is yet another game. This is yet another year.

They're the number one seed. They have a buy. They are the Super Bowl favorite. They're the betting favorite. They are the team to beat. They're getting all these guys back, which didn't really end up mattering. Alexander played a handful of snaps.

Bach Diori didn't even play. Darius Smith didn't play that many snaps, even though he had a sack. But here we are again. This is the end of another season where Rogers falls short. and it's been a complicated year for him in a lot of different ways, and now this is even more complicated.

I think that if they had won the Super Bowl and he had won the MVP and they had just kind of dominated all the way through, you think about what happened this year, and it's like, well, the greatness on the field was undeniable. And now it becomes a little bit more naughty than that because they lose, they fall short again, and now you have all of these questions lingering in the offseason. It's just a strange way for this to end for him and for them.

and based on the way they were talking last night, I think they also understand that. It sounded like it. And I think even Zadari Smith had a Instagram post where he was like, it's been real Green Bay. Yeah. It kind of,

again, another team turning the page on a chapter. They're really turning the page, though. They're 40 million dollars over the cat. They're going to the next volume. Yeah. Yeah.

It's part two or whatever you want to say for the Packers. It's part 17 of their, their encyclopedia. But this, this Packers team, though, this summer, again, we were almost surprised a bit when we realized how much talent they had.

Yeah. Right. Now it's surprise might not be the best where we're started. We're like, oh man, they actually have a lot more young players than we realized. And then they find these guys like Campbell and Free Agency that they're finding these other guys. But it all begins and ends with the quarterback. It's just that's what it is. And it's going to have a domino effect too.

Devante Adams is basically going, what's, what's number 12 doing? Okay. And then I'll decide on my future. Don't know that, you know, they might franchise them, whatever. That's conversation for another time. But man, at a certain point, though, that's expensive. It's very expensive for a team like you said. That's 40 million over the cap.

So Aaron Roger, I mean, it's, it's a weird thing. It just, it is that ever since last year ended. And it really felt like Aaron Rogers and Russell Wilson didn't like the Tom Brady Mahomes Super Bowl. They were kind of through the flailed up going, wait, what the what the hell? What happened to us? Like, we're taking the mantle. Like, we're taking the torch to the next step.

And then other guys are coming up. It kind of felt that was like he wanted something. He wanted the attention. He wanted to go, hey, I'm freaking good too. And it's cool to see Aaron Rogers with a chip on his shoulder. But now it's, it felt like he's used up all his cards in Green Bay. And now it's,

he's got to get dealt a new hand. And that's really what that whole situation feels like in Green Bay. They're going to lose some guys, right? I mean, the bucks maybe, if the bucks want to mortgage their future a little bit more, possibly they pull the right strings to bring most of those guys back. Some guys on this Packers team are not going to be here next year. whether that's Sedaris Smith, whether it's Preston Smith, two guys that they could save a lot of money by moving on from.

Devante Adams obviously is a free agent. I mean, it seems like at the very least, if Rogers is back, they will franchise Devante Adams and figure the rest out. But they have some really hard decisions to make. This was not supposed to end like this. I mean, with the bills, at least you have that glimmer at the end. It's like, oh, man, this sucks, but our quarterback is what, 26 years old, 25 years old, and is only getting. getting better. You know, that contract that we handed him, it's a big one, but he's worth it.

He's one of the guys. Again, he has a seat at the table. Rogers is 38. Yep. You know, this team is not that. This is supposed to be it. This was supposed to be the year. I was talking to Justice Mosquator this week, our friend, and it was, it just kind

of felt like there was an urgency to it with Packers fans in general, right? They understood that. And for it to end like this, the questions here and kind of the dream. red here that hangs over it is more stark than it is with Buffalo or with even the Bucks because the Bucks just did it, right? Yeah. There are no, there's, there's, there's no lingering question. Yeah.

About Tom Brady's playoff legacy and how good he really is and where he really stacks up all time. This was supposed to be the fuck you from Rogers. That's what this was supposed to be. After a year. Yes. After a year where he really. liked needling people and he was enjoying getting a rise out of people and enjoying

get a reaction on people in a lot of different ways. This was supposed to be the fuck you exclamation point at the end of the sentence. And now it just fall so flat. And there's just such a different feel to everything that happened with them this season when it goes down like this. It's kind of apt that your Game of Thrones dragon and makes sense like comparing him to the Dragon from Game of Thrones because the final season was so shitty. The game of Thrones. That's kind of what this feels like. We're Rogers and the Packers. So a couple of the things I wanted to hit on here.

The Packers special teams ultimately losing them a game in the playoffs in a moment like this is unbelievably cruel, but we should have known. We should. We absolutely should have known. They told us every week. Based on everything they were. Every week. But to lose a game, to not, you know, lose the game because of this, but to have a block field goal and a block punt, be

instrumental and you potentially losing a Super Bowl chance is heartbreaking. And that's exactly what happened. And 10 guys on the field on the last on the game winning field goal. I know. I mean, usually special teams. It is because you're playing with guys off the street, you know, free agent, practice squad guys that got called up. So you can, coaching is really influential on that position. So, oh, man, there was just a lot of details lacking. The block field goal was crazy too. I don't know how the left wing doesn't step in, but you're in. It's just like protection. Did you see the shop? Yeah, by Jimmy Ward. Yeah. I mean, that was just little tiny timing things. I mean, that was a beautiful play. Oh, I know. And the block pond was just the Pee and the

long sniper just getting beasted. It's rough. I do want to talk to you about it was really cool. The last two minute drive, uh, or where Jimmy G, the four Niners went down to kick the field goal. The interchangeableness of the 49ers offense and Debo Samuel. I mean, Debo Samuel is a star. We all know it. We can't gush about them enough. They used them as the kickout. blocker like the one like just how Trent Williams yeah used and then the next play or it might have been two plays after they have in backfield as a running back and Jimmy G just checks it down like a normal checkdown they just run a pass concept but checkdowns are a lot better with Debo Samuel and 14 yards

to work with so that goes for one and then they run the trap play with Debo and didn't he run an option route on that same drive too and catch a ball I think he did yeah yeah but just seeing he got literally used every single spot that he used or in every type of role. Runner, blocker, passer, receiver,

catching a pass. But seeing that kind of stuff, it's seeing that 49er stuff, you just don't get worried. What do we always say with this 49ers offense? Right guard, the right tackle, and the quarterback.

And that's exactly what it was. I mean, that's exactly what it felt like today. You had Debo making all of those plays at the end. Yep. You had the Trent Williams pull play is one of my favorite plays of the entire season. Him just absolutely wiping out.

I think it was Rishon Gary. and then getting a piece of the linebacker on the same play. And you have those moments. Kittle had some fantastic moments over the course of this entire game. None of them resulted in touchdown drives. They all came on drives where Jimmy G just sabotaged it by the end. But those guys we need to see on the Niners offense each had their shining moment in this game. And that's what the Niners offense is.

But it's always waiting for you at the end. It's just so hard to watch them and not be afraid that Jim. is ultimately going to doom them in one of these moments. I mean, without a block punt, he does it yesterday. Yep. Yep. The interception. I mean, it's tick, tick, tick, tick.

That's what it just feels like every time he drops back, it's, if that ball doesn't come out in less than two seconds, you're just, you just hold. Oh, man, it's surrender cobra. We just, we're just terrified of what this next second and a half is going to bring us. Because he makes, and he makes the bad plays worse. That's what makes, he almost had, uh, late in the game. I think it was another handoff to Debo. It wasn't a handoff. That's what it was.

It was a toss play to Debo. And I think it was the split zone that we talked about. He botched the snap and then in a panic, turned and toss the ball and almost missed Debo over his shoulder on a toss play. It hit Debo on the chest, thankfully. Oh, it's just a heart attack every single play. I can only imagine like playing with this guy because these moments just happen all the time. When he's, when it's going great, it's great. But there's a lot of these plays when it's in a free.

freezing cold, you just look at him. I wish this guy wasn't the 49th quarterback because they have so many other cool pieces. It's hard to ignore that. And now we have another rematch between that team and the Rams. I mean, again, we have a lot of time to talk about that game. But it's a really fun an FC championship game. It's strange that the Packers won't be in it. I'm not going to say it's sad.

I don't really care. But it's strange that the Packers will not be in that game. But getting around three and not even beyond round three, I mean, how many times have we watched these two teams with these two coaches go at it? I'm sure the story is going to be done to death by the time the game happens about their history and everything else. But these two guys, they're imprint on the league, what their offenses look like, two of our favorite teams in the league to watch. I mean, just everything about them is football catnip for you and I who like digging into this stuff. And there's going to be a lot to explore.

I will say the one last thing I want to mention, we're talking about silver linings. Rishon Gary was incredible. in this game. The hump move that he, I mean, the long arms that he kept hitting Compton with, it's, if you're a Packers fan,

I know that's not enough. I know that's not enough solace. Rishon Gary is a very good player, but I would take some in the performance that he had. The fact that he was doing, he's winning with power moves now. Oh, boy. That's very,

very scary to be adding to that defense. That might have also, Eric Stokes looks like a keeper. And you pair him with Gira Alexander and two, I'm very high in Darnell Savage. I thought Amos played really well this year. He's a good player. Yeah.

It's just a good DB core. I mean, that's fun to work with too. Yeah, there's some silver linings with that that roster construction. There's a lot of good talent on that team. All right. Let's chat about the first game of the weekend, but the last game that we're going to chat about here. Bengals beating the Titans.

So we like to start each one of these breakdowns with just what we think is kind of the headline to take away, the big thing that you're going to remember about this game. I don't know what I was going to land on with this game. I had a hard time kind of distilling it. So I wanted to ask you, like when you think about this game tomorrow, a few days from now, a year from now, what are you going to think about first? The smorgasbord of sacks, I think is because they came in all different varieties,

man. They did. It was every variety you want. It was against every type of protection. It was each guy blowing an assignment or just. losing straight up. It was, yeah, it was any type, any type you want. We had spicy, we had mild.

Yeah, we had roasted. We had fried. It was great. That, that, we spent a lot of time talking about how the sim pressures and all the complexities of the Titans defense were going to be a huge problem for the Bengals pass protection. And then they had nice to ask. Yeah. Just if you need a visual, watch that game.

I would say that and the Tannahill interceptions. I mean, those are the, those are the two highlight low lights. I guess both low lights. for me with this game. It speaks to how the defense is performed, but that's really what I took away from this game. It was, man,

it was a, this was a fist fight and an ugly one, like an ugly fist fight. It was, it put some, it was good though. It was cool to see a team come back. It really got zamped up for the night game,

which was also another kind of weird fist fight, waiting into the explosion of offense today. But it was a pallet cleanser. I'll put it that way. I mean, the Bengals offensive line and just their overall pass protection, plan in this game was a disaster. They got destroyed.

They got thrown around the entire game. And I feel like it really speaks to what they are right now. They are Joe Burrow, T. Higgins, Jamar Chase, Joe Mixin, and Tyler Boyd. That's what the Bengals are. And that was enough in this game. I mean, just how many, again, on the screws outside the numbers throw did Joe Burrow hit in really big moments in this game, whether it was to Higgins, whether it was to Boyd, I mean, a couple different corner routes to Higgins in huge moments.

I mean, he those were the, he made enough plays in this game to really carry them when the offensive infrastructure was kind of crumbling around him for most of the afternoon. The one to Chase in the two minute after the Tan Hill interception, that was it, the timing, the trust that he has would Chase to win on that. And Chase as well talked about, I know I sound like a broken record that I only know it's like three plays, like duo and two man. But the Titans were in two-man. And what was remarkable on Chase with that play is he won as a lone receiver as an X against two-man on an outbreaker. And he ran it from a normal split. So splits can give away what a route receivers can run. Good receivers, they could stem it or good concepts can.

They can win without like advantageous like close splits or wide splits. The Colts famously because Peyton Manning wanted it so they could just run the same formations every play. It was, this is the manning, the cold split was on the numbers. Reggie Wayne and Marvin Erison played on the numbers, exact same split, so they didn't have tells and they stemmed from that. But he beat this outbreaker in two men. And bro talked about that they were anticipating two men because they have been running it throughout the game. So he wins on it. And if you watch the replay, he busts the corner's ass.

That corner went air ball on the press. Air ball completely missed. And then so he's chasing, no pun intended, he's chasing Jamar, chase on the Outbreaker and it's just pitch and catch. But in such a, I think there's 18 or 20 seconds left, there's such a high leverage moment to make that look casual. Just put them in. They do that a lot. Yeah, inevitable. That's how they feel. That connection feels. And to have those big plays pop up, that's a huge one after the interception. That's just the connection that they have. So he just made enough throws. They made it hard on them. They really did. I mean, obviously with the pass rush,

Tyne's defense got, I mean, we talked about they were a lot more fun to watch than we realized they're mixing some stuff up. But really, that's what comes down to is those two's connections, that star power they have at their skill players. The Bengals do not run the ball efficiently, but there's one thing I noticed that really worked for them on that touchdown drive that Mix and scored. So they were lining up in 12 personnel with two tight ends to the left side. They would flip one of the tight ends to the right side.

The Titans would do nothing. They would not adjust the front whatsoever. This happened twice on the same drive. Yep. So because they changed the alignment there and they got more bodies on the right and they created more gaps to that side, they were able to just kind of screw with the way the Titans were defending that run. It was just inside zone, right? Yep. And they kept overrunning it because of having that balanced formation and just the way it looked to the defense, the backside linebacker, two different times overran that play.

I think actually one time, Cunningham overran it. And I think Long tried to play it backside and screwed it up. So twice. Mixing was able to find cutbacks on that exact play. And the added little thing with that is they motioned a receiver over before and then shifted a tight end. So what that's doing is the formation looks like hip left. It looks like a trips formation into the boundary. Motion to receiver over.

Okay, it's slot. This is what I call hip slot. This is what defense guys called Y, Y, Y, Wing. Two tight ends, now two receivers sat side. and then motioning the tight end. That's awesome that you saw this. Yeah, they went to this run in third quarter really ended up that touchdown.

And they went to, yeah, they went to, I would say like three times. Motion it over. You're changing the passing straight. You're changing all the strengths of the offense. You're going from trips to the left to slot to basically trips to the field. I went, of course, as an offense guy, I said trips to the left. But yeah, the defense is right. But even on the interception, the tip ball interception that like tossed up right after

that Joe Burrow had, they went to the same point. formation, but out of 13 personnel. But I thought that was really interesting. They saw something with the front. They absolutely did because they kept spamming it. Because it was working. Same exact play too. They'd even try to disguise it like set in it.

They're just like, we're just going to get right to this play over and over. But yeah, saw that as well because that was, that's what the Bengals running game could do. They usually find one run they like and they get to it. Usually it's weak side zone, but they find like a little different variation that they do off of it.

The Titans didn't find much in the running game. And that's going to take us to the State Farm, surprisingly great performance. of the week presented by State Farm. I want to talk about the Bengals defense just overall. And that's not necessarily surprising based on what we've seen from the Bengals all season. But we didn't have high hopes for the Bengals defense coming into the year. They spent a lot of money on pretty good players.

And that's usually what free agency nets you, right? And that's you pretty good players, the Mike Hilton's of the world, the Chidobie and Woosiers of the world. Over the last couple years, that's the caliber of player they've added. in free agency because those are the guys typically available. Trey Hendrickson, DJ Reeder, Von Bell. All solid players. But when you pay solid players premium prices,

because that's what you have to do in free agency, what does that do for you? And the Bengals defense, with that exact makeup, has been so much greater, in my opinion, than the sum of the parts the entire year. And you saw those guys added in those exact ways come up huge for them in this game.

Mike Hilton, obviously, with the interception coming off that blitz, an incredible blitzer. Always was such a physical presence for that Steelers team has had a really nice season for them. DJ Reeder was awesome in this game. We thought he would need to be. And he absolutely was. Derek Henry, 20 carries for 62 yards. And the advanced numbers are not kind. They were not good on the ground and it hurt them in a big way.

Burrow lost more yards on sacks than Derek Henry had yards rushing. That's put in perspective. I think it was like 67 sack yards lost and 62 for Derek Henry. Yeah. This defense, I had thought that you can get after him a little bit in the run game. You can just, you know, poke at the bubble until it pops and just keep running at it. Keep running at it. Man, they load the box and played so, so well.

Especially they were just kicking ass up front. That was one good. aspect of it. But also, this is what this defense does. They had, they let up a couple runs. They let up a couple long runs, but then they tighten down. Tighten down. No point on it again, but tightened down on what the Titans wanted to do. And this defense just, it just felt tight in the passing game. And then again, in the run, beating up front, BJ Hill had a great game. And, you know, they traded for him. And that was another, okay, that's a nice role player. Okay, he's solid. He's solid. But again, these guys step up. They play fast. These guys know exactly what they're doing. They don't

bring a ton of pressure, but when they do, it's fun stuff. Like, it's really hard for the offense to pick up. And then their guys are so smart that they're able to run into hotlines. They know hot lanes and they know exactly where offenses want to go with the ball. It's happened time and time again. And then when they're running this coverage, it was cool watching them run cover three today and today, Saturday, running all this cover three that they're running. They're loading the box, but they're able to play the pass against Julio Jones and A.J. Brown

because they're squeezing the throwing lanes. the intermediate defenders, the linebackers and the down safety, were getting back into it and tightening and making the Tana Hill just never felt comfortable making those tight throats. And that's how you do it. It was all down the field. A huge chunk of their passing production. We're on players,

but you could just really let it rip. Yeah. And it had to be because they were just squeezing everything. The last interception of, it was like really the one big one was you could feel Eli Apple, who's another guy they pick up in free agency. Eli Apple, he's, okay, I'm not getting beat over the top because only two times you really beat us over the top or play action plays.

You guys are just dropping back and passing in this two-minute drill. Okay, I'm squatting. And that's what they're smart. They understand how offenses is wanting to attack them. The very first play of the game, Jesse Bates on the get interception, reading the play out, getting out, getting over there. Because again, the Titans were squatting, you know, or running a deep curl so they could squat on it.

So they might not have the most talented, talented guys, but they are well coached and they play really fast, fun football. And, you know, they take it to offenses. They don't play scared. All right. Guys, remember like a good neighbor. State Farm is there. Get a quote today.

Last thing I want to hit here, just the outlook that we're talking about with the Titans. This team made some moves this offseason to maximize this window. They went out and they traded for Julio Jones, which in the moment made sense. Yeah. When you think about their timeline and what they needed and where they were and the needs they had, it made sense.

order to do that, they had to move some money around. They restructured Ryan Tana Hill's contract. Ryan Tana Hill is a $38.6 million cap hit next year. Bud Dupree is a $19.2 million cap hit next year. Ben Jones, their center, who's been really good for them for the last few years, just really solid presence in the middle of that offensive line, is 33 years old and is hitting free agency. Harold Landry, who had a career year, is also hitting free agency.

David Cuisenberry, their right tackle, who was a solid stopgap starter this year for them in the ways they want to use their offensive line is also a free agent. Multiple starters with a $39 million quarterback. Yeah. I don't know what this team is because it kind of comes down to the Ryan Tannhill conversation. He's going to be 34 years old. And when things around Ryan Tanna Hill are great and when the offensive system and machine is calibrated such that he's put in positions that ask him to cater to his strengths,

he can do a lot of things for you. This has been one of the most efficient offenses of football at times over the last couple years. When he is taken out of those circumstances, you see the cracks. Yes. And that's where they are. And when you look at other teams around the NFL, when you look at the gap between the Titans quarterback play and the Bengals quarterback play on Saturday, let alone what we

saw on the field in Kansas City tonight, you see that gap. And that gap is a lot harder to reconcile when you're paying. paying your quarterback $39 million. And I like Ryan Tannahill. Yeah. But this is what, this is the wall you're eventually going to run into. And I think that's the place the Titans have reached. Yeah.

You see the ceiling of what he can do when he has to drop back. We've seen him time and time again. It's, yeah, he's part of that breed of quarterback that's it, when things are right. Oh, yeah, this is good. Look at him throwing a rhythm. He's not, he can create plays with his legs, but he's not that creator where it's like, okay, this isn't a perfect play or this isn't, this coverage is tight. I'm creating a throw here.

He's very robotic in the pocket. And I mean, he's in the mid 30s, but you say he was 34? He's going to be 34 next year. Yeah. Yeah. And look at all these guys. Taylor the one 31 next year. Roger Saffold, 34 next year.

Oh, man. Janoris Jenkins 34 next year. Julio Jones 33, to Nico Autry 32. And they've combined that with some really promising homegrown young players. A.J. Brown, Christian Fulton, Elijah Mollton. Elijah Mould and Jeffrey Simmons. They have drafted well enough to be excited about what the future looks like. But this current version of what they are, a lot of important pieces to this are getting to the end here.

And it creates some questions. And it's also, do they look quarterback in the draft? Like that this is a team that you can, it could be a surprise guy, surprise team that looks at one. Because this is a type of draft. You get guys in the 20s, the 30s, the early. second as opposed to everybody being the top 10 like last year. So that's what's curious too is that the next page. Like they could, man, it feels like a blow up. All these guys in the 30s. I mean, those are that's 30. That's not, oh man, they're 29. Okay. We're getting there. These are like mid 30s

guys. And these are important spots. And that's supposed to be the strength of the team. That's what the real worrisome thing is. These guys aren't supposed to be stopgap guys. These are the core players. And that's what, yeah, this is a tough situation. I mean, comparing them to like the bucks who have an older team. Bucks you almost feel you feel better about. Obviously, just disregard on Tom Brady. I'm saying with all the other pieces and players they have and just the ages of some of these younger players. And with this Titans team, it's more, okay, is that guy an overwhelming talent that we want to really make appeal to and maybe bring back for another year? Or do we just have to turn the page and find a new guy to be the successor? It's a lot of question marks.

Two more things to hit before we get out of here very quickly. Do you think it was a mistake to ride Derek Henry the way that they did in this game, off that injury and with how inefficient their running game was for most of the afternoon? Or do you feel like they had to protect Tanna Hill in some way and just protect their offensive gameplay? I thought Foreman was running the ball well. Yes. I thought a little bit that they went to it too much as almost say, we got to get him going.

Yeah, exactly. We know. Foreman looked good running the ball. Those fourth and shorts aren't great with Derek Henry in two. And it was more like to take an argument away. from him if the play doesn't work. Well, we had our star in there because if former gets stuffed, then it's like, what would have him if Derek Henry gets stuff? But he's not good at those. He's so tall. He gets tripped up on those. Not that the blocking was great, but that's

also speaks to the Bengals defense playing so well. But man, I thought, what do you have 20 touches? Yeah. I thought he was going to get 12 max. And that was on a good day. And I thought some of the passing game stuff would be a little easier. I only remember the two good play action plays. And one of them was more of a broken play where he threw it deep and who or AJ Brown caught the jump ball. So it was really weird. I thought they were really trying to play against or play to their type or play to like, this is what we know, this is what we are. This is our identity as opposed to understanding their situation a little bit. We don't talk about kickers very much on this show, but I wanted to give Evan McPherson his due because it's pretty cold to hit those

kicks in those moments as a rookie and make it look casual, easy, comfortable. He did all of that on Saturday. So when you pick a kicker where they did, you hope that he comes through for you in these moments. They were really excited about him in training camp. It was the thing when I was there, like, man, the kicker is really good. Yeah. It's one of those, like, all right. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Good job, guys. I'm really glad the kicker's good. And they're right. He was really good. He's cold-blooded. Not just because he's a gator. But he is, I mean, that is automatic as they come. Hey, quarterback's only as good as this kicker. That's what the, that's what the saying is. I mean, just asked the chiefs tonight. That was pretty terrifying, seeing the kicker miss a big ones in a big game.

Bengals feel a lot better in those clutch situations. That's how he's been all year, though. Yeah. He's been automatic this entire season. He's kicked some big kicks as a rookie. That's what you want. That's why he spent a fifth rounder on him, I guess. Well, I'm glad we just finished off one of the greatest weekends of football with talk about the Bengals kicker. I'm really glad about that. What a weekend. Absolutely fantastic sets us up for two. excellent games next weekend. I mean, we just saw Bengals Chiefs a couple weeks ago. Even if you think, man, you know, the Bengals are not as good as some other teams that we've seen in the AFC, whatever, which I don't even know if it's true anymore. The Bengals are, we've seen them play

a really entertaining game against the Chiefs. I mean, it's right in our rearview mirror. We understand what this looks like. And there's no need to sell us on Rams Niners. So a lot to look forward to. I hope you guys had a great time watching the games this weekend. I know I did in my very strange way. But getting to come to this game after missing some games in the wildcar round makes it worth it. These are the weekends that are really, really fun to be an NFL fans. I hope you guys enjoyed it. We certainly did. If you want to hear more about some of these games, we have podcasts that cover these teams, local podcasts. 11 personnel is our RAM show with Jordan Roderig and Rich Hammond. You want to check that out. Here's the catch, our Niners show with

Matt Barrow's and David Lombardi. Head of the Pack with Matt Schneiman is our Packers podcast. Times ours with my friend Nate Taylor, who was so good to see today. Seth Kaiser and Josh Briscoe covering the Chiefs. And Joe Biscoglia does the Buffalo beat talking about the Bills. It's probably a little sad moment for you, Bill's fans. I'm not sure you want to hear more about it right now, but you should revisit it sometime later on. Or if you just want to sit in it and you want to commiser with some people, you can do that as well. So please go check that out.

I will be doing our mailbag this week. I'm actually in Kansas City. I'm going to be recording in person with Mitch tomorrow. I'm very excited. So get your questions in for that. The mailbag number, the voicemail number is 872-22-2-73. The email address is Athletic Football Show at gmail.com. 872-22-733.

Athletic Football Show at gmail.com. Please send in your questions by 1 p.m. Eastern on Monday. For now, we really appreciate you guys listening. Please rate and review the show on your podcast platform of choice. We're getting to the end of the season. If you liked the show, go leave us five stars. Leave us to review. We would really appreciate that.

Please subscribe to The Athletic. Theathetic.com slash football show. Think about the weekend that we just had. Don't you want to read more about that stuff? Don't you want to read more from Nate Taylor about this Chiefs win? Don't you want to read more from Jordan Roderig about that Rams win and everything that went down? Don't you want to read Greg Alman, our Bucks writer, on the future of the bucks?

Don't you want to read Joe Buscaglia about everything that happened with the bills this year and what this all means. If you're a fan of these teams and you don't subscribe to The Athletic, I really don't know what you're doing. Please do it. I highly recommend it. Theathletic.com slash football show. We will be back on Tuesday with Mitch. Until then, appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you soon. This was The Athletic Football Show.